The pressure of being the best effects everyone, it’s become a permanent defensive position because other fans wanna tear down our beloved Thunder & we have to defend that…. The team can’t just win or lose anymore, they have to WIN !!!!

Where are the smiles ???? In HOUSTON….

Business took front & center before the season began & now the pressure on the front office is to show it was a great move even though we lost our heart, our smile, our beard….

James made it fun, who makes it fun now ????

I don’t know, you tell me bruh….

But what strikes me is this. Even with last night’s disappointment, the Thunder is still one of the best team’s in the league, and will have a solid shot at winning the Western Conference and getting back to the finals. Where if they make it, they’ll probably get another shot at Miami.

I get the upset from last night’s game. It sucked, flat-out. Still, you step back and look at the big picture, which is what I tend to do, and the world for Thunder fans is pretty good.

But you wouldn’t know it based on a lot of what you see here. The Thunder is better than they were last year, and far, far better than when they first got here. But truth be told, it’s not as much fun as it was in those first few years.

Maybe the funnest season we’ve had as fans was the 50-win season when they unexpectedly made the playoffs. Last year may have matched that, especially with the way they dismantled San Antonio after falling down 0-2 in the conference finals.

This year? Second-best record in the league, top-scoring offense, Durant’s in the hunt for another scoring title, he and Russ are All Stars again…..things are pretty not too freaking bad. But the natives are not happy. Not nearly as happy as when the team was fighting for a chance at making the playoffs.

I guess we’ve grown up as fan base. What a shame.

As for last night’s game, short version for me is that I think they just flat want to beat Miami so much, they tighten up and don’t play with the confidence that they normally show, in themselves and in each other. That’s something they’ll have to deal with, and figure out how to get past. This team hasn’t had to deal with adversity very much yet. Every team has to at some point, just like every person has to deal with it in their own lives at some point.

We’ll see how they handle it. It could be the deciding factor in how far they go this year. Whatever the result, I hope we enjoy the trip a little more than we have so far. We’ve had more success than ever, and we’re less happy about it than ever.

Go figure.

Practice, practice, practice on one aspect of your game and practice over and again on other aspects until they all become natural – you fully trust all your abilities – so automatic that you don’t give a damn about the opponent facing you.

The same applies to a combination of players on a team.