u/Defiant_Ad6083

The doom and gloom in this sub has been unreal.
Yeah, last night was not great, but acting like the sky is falling is wild.

We’re the loudest, best fanbase in the league. Time to act like it.

A few facts and comments to kill this gloom:

1. Cold start......We opened 0–7 with 4 fouls in 4 minutes. That killed rhythm and confidence. It set the entire tone. Yet, we nearly stole this game.
2. SGA adjustments: 4 points in the first half, then finishes with 24/12/5/1 while being doubled all night. That’s a two‑time MVP figuring things out mid‑game
3. J‑Dub return: First game in a month and he looked great. That matters.
4. Caruso god mode: He flipped the game when he checked in. That fire isn’t going anywhere. It's the Sexual Orca.
5. Spurs adjustments: This wasn’t the same Spurs team from the last five games. They changed things. We will too. They are also buzzing with confidence but in their first playoffs run.
6. Game 1 losses: We lost Game 1 v Nugs and Pacers. Both series flipped. Both against “best player in the world” narratives. Hali was on a god tier run and Jokic was Jokic.
7. 3pt shooting: We actually shot the three well. We are usually complaining about the fact we didn't.
8. Clutch stuff: We were down basically the entire game and still forced double OT. That’s our championship DNA. Our guts.
9. OT: One or two shots fall in OT and the narrative today is the exact opposite.
10. Wemby’s historic night: He had an all‑time/historical performance. That’s not happening every game. Logo threes aren’t a repeatable game to game thing. He was exhausted. He is not capable of 40 minutes a night. He has averaged 28 this playoffs....
11. Rust factor: We never look sharp after long breaks. This is a known pattern.
12. Ajay comeback: He was a shell of himself. He won’t be again.
13. Chet vs Spurs: He needs to find his place in this matchup. He will. That look we saw on the TV? That wasn't defeat like the "others" think.
14. Chip on the shoulder: The whole squad has something to prove now. Who doesn't want that Thunder dawg in game 2?
15. We’re OKC. Champions. We will act like it.

2 extra points...

16. We didn't blow it like the Cavs. ouch

17. Wemby is immature and loses his air of cool quite easily.

Looking at our playoff defensive rating of 109, which was good for 7th of 16.

Obviously a difference compared to our regular season and no cause of any sort of alarm.

I am purely wondering what was much different compared to our regular season and the reason for it being a bit higher? Considering we kept them to 84 points in game 1. On the eye test, we still appeared elite defensively.

Our offensive rating was number 1 surprisingly. Statmuse had us +4.1 than 2nd place Knicks and +13.6 over the Spurs in 3rd. That shows either how much better our offensive was or how bad the Suns defense was. That to me is more important, we are humming!