The Oklahoma City Thunder have not had a particularly fun start to the 2017-18 season. After an offseason that saw them go out and add Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, the expectation was that the Thunder would be one of the West’s best teams and would be among those pushing to challenge Golden State.
Instead, the Thunder have sputtered out of the gate to a 13-14 start to the season, mired in the middle of the pack in the West fighting for a playoff position. Because of that, there haven’t been a lot of opportunities for the stars to really have fun with each other in the same kinds of ways we’ve seen from super teams of the past and present.
That said, after a comeback victory over the Pacers in Indiana giving Paul George a win in his return to Indianapolis, the Thunder let loose and had some fun. The locker room was filled with guys cracking jokes on one another, and on the court, Russell Westbrook decided to mess with Steven Adams, who was being doing a walkoff TV interview, by pretending to RKO him as he was bent over talking.
RussKO 😂 pic.twitter.com/IfHb8GRuWQ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 14, 2017
Russ with the RKO OUTTA NOWHERE! pic.twitter.com/LlBBh94wGi
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 14, 2017
Adams’ reaction is great, as are most Steven Adams reactions, and it shows a little bit more lightness and looseness than we’ve seen over the past couple weeks from the Thunder. Considering how downtrodden the squad has appeared during their rough start to the season it’s a good sign that they’re able to enjoy the wins.
The offense still has a long way to go for the Thunder, as the three stars still don’t seem to know how they’re supposed to fit together and ball movement tends to be rather non-existent. That said, the defense remains shockingly good and if they can carry the good vibes forward and bring that comfort shown in the locker room to the offensive side of the ball, they might just be able to tap into the sky high potential so many saw when the team came together.
