Thunder Struck

For the past two NBA seasons, the Oklahoma City Thunder has been the best team in the league — at least, until the playoffs came around. The season before this one, the Thunder lost Russell Westbrook, their dynamic point guard, to a leg injury. As a result, they lost in the first round to the
Memphis Grizzlies. This season, the Thunder maintained a healthy status until they won the right to play in the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs, a team the Thunder beat all four times they played during the regular season, But, on the eve of that series, the Thunder learned they would be without their solid power forward Serge Ibaka, a loss tantamount to the Spurs playing without Tim Duncan. I was really hoping to see an NBA finals series between the Thunder and the Indiana Pacers. It would be tantamount to witnessing a new generation coming to the fore in the NBA. But I guess that’s not going to happen. The snakebit Thunder can make the series competitive, but can’t win it without Ibaka plugging the middle, and the Pacers losing the coveted home court advantage a couple of hours ago to the Miami Heat seems to make another Heat appearance in the finals a boring inevitability. Oh, well. I think I’ll take a nap.