FIRST TAKE| Thunder are best team of all time – Stephen A. on OKC sets record, ties Warriors at 24–1

FIRST TAKE| Thunder are best team of all time – Stephen A. on OKC sets record, ties Warriors at 24–1

which led to an absolute blowout. 138 to 89 the final score. With the win, the Thunder matched the best 25game start to an NBA season with the 2015 2016 Golden State Warriors. I don’t know how to articulate what we’re seeing from from Oklahoma City, but maybe you can. Stephen, they’re 24 in one. Okay. They’ve won like 15 or 16 straight. She Butter, Shay Gilis Alexander is just that dude. RC, Dio, Mina, I’m worried about the NBA. OKC is on the verge of making this season that I was looking very much forward to very, very boring. They’re just that dominant. I mean, I’m sitting there like it doesn’t matter who they go against. They are just busting everybody’s living. You know what with no concerns whatsoever. It’s so dominant in OKC. Even if you had the chance with all the assets that you had to get Jiannis sent to Kmpo, why bother? You don’t need them. That’s how awesome they are. It’s a welloiled machine. I I I just don’t know what to say. I I’m just looking and I’m like, can anybody beat them? And and they go and by the way, they gonna win 73. Oh, they they don’t have injuries. They’re winning 73 games this year. They’re just a juggernaut on both ends of the floor. They do what they want when they want and they turn it up when they want. It’s like that in OKC. They have one one loss this season. It was on the road at Portland after a backtoback. They lost by two and had like four players out. It’s crazy what they’re doing so far this season. It’s wild. Uh Joe Burrow did not hold back about how he views the game of football. See, no Devin Booker, no Jaylen Greens. The fewest points by the Suns this season and the fewest allowed by the Thunder. Now, the Thunder have won 16 straight to improve to 24-1. Now, it’s tied for the Warriors or their glorious season. Is it a foregone conclusion that they’re breaking the record? like is it is it for sure happening? Obviously, there’s a lot of basketball played left. I I don’t see anything stopping them. You know, usually somebody can say the only thing can stop them or themselves. I don’t see that. Exactly what I’m about to say. I don’t I don’t see that either. I mean, exactly what I’m about to say. This team is so disciplined. They’re so together. They’re all about winning. They love, you know, being teammates. This is literally the perfect team. This is a coach’s dream. So, um I don’t I don’t see that changing. I don’t see anybody getting in their way of of breaking that record. Um, and I think the record is theirs to have. Yeah. I don’t I don’t see anybody beating them besides the injury bug. I think the injury bug is the only thing that can derail this basketball team. And it’s have it’s going to have to be the injury bug that’s going to be at the top. I’m not going to say names because I don’t want to jinx anybody, but when you watch this basketball team play, they’ve shown you they can withstand guys being in and out of the lineup and still be a really good basketball team. you now you look around the league and you start looking at other teams and the way that they play like you’re telling me this wasn’t a motivated team to try to get to this NBA cup and play when you go out and beat a team in a deciding game by 50 plus points and you with you withhold that 50point game by three quarters almost when you’re playing this basketball game. So that tells me that this is a team that’s focused. They’re very intentional about how they approach basketball games and how they’ve approached this season. Last year we knew how good they were. They’re even better basketball team this season. And that’s what makes this whole thing scary when it comes to OKC. Man, it’s crazy because they have zero holes, right? They’re so good offensively. They’re so deep. They’re so good defensively. And when you look at like the look at the schedule, right? Like, oh, that schedule is hard for this team. This is a favorable schedule. Their only lost is to the Blazers, by the way. It’s on the second night of back and it was by two points. Look at the schedule. I mean, I I immediately I see I see a couple things. I see the the backtoback on the Spurs. Second night of the Grizzlies, the Spurs playing them three times in the next 10 games. I got to imagine they maybe get one of those. Also, huge schedule flop, you know, mixup by the NBA here, putting the NBA games first, Thunder two days before Christmas and then running it back on Christmas. That was a botch job. But where’s the next loss? Like, I can’t be like, “Oh, you know what? They’re they’re going to lose to the they’re going to lose to the Hawks.” I was about to say, but it’s some it’s some challenges there. like like you said, seeing the Spurs three times in in your next 10. That would be my only guess would be the Spurs on that on December 23rd. You listen, that Knicks ma that Knicks Magic matchup one or the other um out in Vegas is is possibly going to be something that you got to look at. You got to look at the Timberwolves as well and and how they’ve been able to play. Then at the bottom of that schedule after that Christmas break, maybe somebody catch them slipping. Maybe the Sixers catch them slipping. Maybe the Hawks catch them slipping. The Blazers so far the only team to be able to do it. maybe they run it back and they be the team that that has the matchice that you know every once in a while you have that team that got your number and you can’t do nothing about it. So they have some challenges coming up in this schedule as we can see but again if you’re you if you’re OKC you’re not worried about any of these g games if you continue to pave your way and play the way that they’re playing. Man, that’s I used to hate when a coach like it’s it’s about us. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. As long as we do what we do, that’s all that matters. And I think that’s true more so than ever with this team. If they go out there and they play their style, they play the way they do. They get up and down. SGA is SGA and they are fully loaded. They haven’t even been fully loaded. Like blue, they don’t they don’t play for the fourth quarter. I think the point differential last year was 12. Now this year it’s 17. They are blowing teams out. They are dominating teams. Like I said, their only loss is by two points on the back on the second back toback. So I can’t pick out one of those other than just like a scheduling issue because it doesn’t matter who they play. It’s almost it’s almost getting to the point where I’d rather just kind of fast forward through the season and get get to the end because this is it’s almost like a waste of time. I mean, this this team hasn’t really seen a challenge yet outside of that Blazers team. And like you said, that’s more credit to the back to back, but they’re showing they’re the clear-cut favorite to to to, you know, win it again. And and it’s nobody close right now. Not so fast though, fellas, because we did have a hot take. Oh, Paul Pierce said that he feels like the Celtics are the only team that can stand in front of OKC in derailing their dynasty over the next five years. We buying stock on that. Boogie, you love the Celt. You love the Celtics. I’ll be honest, from what I the video I saw from Jason Tatum, you know, training coming from a guy that also suffered an Achilles injury, it’s it’s night and day from what, you know, where I was coming back to where he is right now. And obviously that was years ago. uh medicine is continuing to evolve and get better and better. So, what I just saw is definitely a chance for him to return this season. It’ll it would definitely change the whole trajectory of that Celtics season. And on top of that, the Celtics are actually doing their thing right now. They’re about third, fourth in the East. Um nobody was really expecting that and they kind of got signed off on early. So, it is some truth to what Paul is saying. Well, the Celtics as we as we know it, the group as we know it, it’s different. Drew Holiday is gone. Al Horford is gone. We don’t know what version of Jason Tatum we’re going to see. I got high I got high hopes for for for JT when he returns and he’s going to be in the form that we we’ve grown accustomed to seeing him. JB is going to do his thing. But the identity of that group as we know it has changed so much. So, I got a lot of questions and if that’s going to be the team, I got to see them be a standstill dominant basketball team in the Eastern Conference before we start putting them against OKC and derailing a dynasty when we’re looking at a team that’s looking at making history this year. Yeah. Give me the Thunder and five or or possibly four. Like, I’ve seen too much. And again, I think the Celtics are doing really really well with having so much change and so much adjustment with losing the guys that that Lou mentioned. Now, what version are we going to get of Jason Tatum? The video looked great. I saw the video, too. It looks awesome. And I hope he comes back. And this season looks like it’s going to giving him something hopeful to come back. If he was on these other teams, and I would say don’t rush it. You guys have no chance. If you were up and down, they become a good team to a really, really good team. If Jason Tannum can come and give them 75 80% for the rest of the season of what he gave last year and the years before. So, I do like it. But if we’re comparing them to the Thunder, I don’t even think it’s close, dude. But we can all agree if he did return that clear changes things clearcut to come out of the east though. It changes things for sure. Anthony Simons has got to be a little bit better off the bench. But Pritchard now the starting role he’s playing good. Eric White, you know what you’re going to get from. The depth has been the issue always for me with with the Celtics like but now they have Jordan Walsh the He’s playing good. He’s getting some good games. Sam Hower, he again he’s got to be better. He’s got to make more shots. But it’s the depth for me versus the glaring hole and the big biggest difference between these two teams. It’s not clear-cut for me. And and I say that because they weren’t the team that came out of the East last year and this year they’re not dominating the East. So, I got to see some of that writing on the wall. Like, I believe in the Celtics when they have JT and JB together. They’re a dynamic duo that’s that’s obviously won a lot of games and they got hardware to prove it. But when you have one guy out of the lineup and the rest of the group is still there, you just want to you kind of want to see some of those telltale signs of being that basketball team. And we know how much of an impact Jason Tatum have on any team and the Boston Celtics included. But as it stands with this group, they’re not the clear-cut favorites in the East right now. So when you bring him back, I just got to see it. So I wouldn’t say clearcut, but I do give them a better opportunity to beat that team when Jason Tatum is in that line. Okay. So watching the Thunder, if you had to, and this is going to be very hard because there’s not many. What’s the one critical thing that you could say about the Thunder? Like where do they struggle? Is is it reliable? Popcorn is way too high. They got to bring the prices down on the popcorn. It’s is because they’re 15th in rebounding. They shot 33 33% from three last year. Have upped that to 38. It’s is that they’re relying too much on SGA? Like is it healthy? That’s one that’s one thing you can point at. Like they rely on his scoring a lot and every night you can put 30 points in the books for him and they expect him he’s going to take 25 to 30 attempts. But that works for them. That’s been their pedigree and that’s something that they’ve been able to lean on and had a lot of success um in doing that. So when you look at when you look at OKC, it just looks like the perfect storm. If you’re going to criticize one thing, I don’t know what it would be if they like I like them leaning on SGA. So I don’t see that as a as a as a as a thing that that can be a problem. 15th and rebounding that can kind of be misleading because it ain’t a lot to rebound. That can kind of be misleading as well. lot of makes. It’s a lot of It’s a lot of It’s a lot of It’s a lot of makes. You look at point differentials. You can look at all of these other things. They’re doing everything in their power to just be a team that has blinders on when it comes to the goal that’s at hand and trying to win another championship. I can’t find a lot of holes in this team. It’s also too like you think about the load management because the youth and it that doesn’t exist with them because first of all, they’re just beating people’s ass where they’re not even playing the fourth quarter. Last night they played SGA played 26 minutes. That’s crazy. Played 24 minutes. They won by 50, bro. Like like like So they’re doing it in such a dominant and aggressive fashion early and they’re so deep. Like think about last night, no Isaiah Joe, no Hartinstein. It doesn’t matter because there’s the next two guys up. Then the next game, Cruso’s been

FIRST TAKE | Thunder are best team of all time – Stephen A. on OKC sets record, ties Warriors at 24–1