No need to worry about Thunder
As Game 1 losers, they're in good company; and if they're ready to win, they will
Just so you know, the Thunder are in good company as they approach Game 2 of the NBA Finals Sunday night.
Like, some of the greatest players and teams the league’s ever known have dropped the opener only to claim the title and against better teams than Indiana.
Perhaps that’s bound to happen a few times over almost 80 years of awarding crowns, and still just an abbreviated list is eye opening.
Magic Johnson’s and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar’s ’83-’84 Lakers lost Game 1 to the Celtics only to came back and win it all in seven games and the very next season the opposite happened, Larry Bird’s, Kevin McHale’s and Robert Parish’s Celtics topping the Lakers after an opening loss.
Michael Jordan’s ’90-’91 Bulls needed just five games to stop the Lakers, but the opener went to Los Angeles.
Seven years later, Jordan’s Bulls were again Game 1 losers only to finish Karl Malone’s and John Stockton’s Jazz off in six games … in which neither team broke 100 points once and only twice broke 90.
If not for Jordan would anybody have watched ’90s NBA?
More recently, two incarnations of the Heat pulled the trick.
The Dwyane Wade-Alonzo Mourning-Shaq ’05-’06 Heat were actually down 0-2 to Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks, only to win the next four.
Infamously, around here at least, the ’11-’12 Heat of Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh lost Game 1 in OKC only to win the next four.
These things happen.
Now also might be a good time to remember Oklahoma City lost Game 1 at home to Denver two series ago and that best-of-7 turned out all right.
“The playoffs take you to the limit,” Thunder skipper Mark Daigneault said late Thursday night. “They put your back against the wall in games, series. If you make it this far, you have to endure to do that. It gives you rich experiences that you can draw upon.”
“Rich” is one word for it.
Another is “horrendous.”
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