The Sound of the Suburbs

Well, Kobe carried his team to an essential win Tuesday night, but did you SEE that OKC team? Did they block a million shots!? Did they challenge every shot?! Wow, put Andre Miller on this team and you're looking at The Finals.

Yeah, LA won and they're up 2-0 and will win the series but yet ... the aptly named Thunder are just that: Smokestack Robert Johnson Lightning contesting every shot, making every foul shot, scaring the crap out of Laker Nation.

With a median age of about 15, the Thunder are an unchained beast of youth, flying around the court but yet with fundamental restraint that makes Scott Brooks The Coach Du Jour.

Durant and Jeff Green for Ray Allen was the rare mutually beneficial draft day deal: Ray got his title but The Thunder extracted their pound of flesh.

I can't recall such an exciting young team who play with such discipline and athleticism. They're sure to make this series interesting because they're riding the bus right now to LAX chafing at letting this one get away, and look for them to win one if not two at home and make this REAL interesting.

There's zero pressure on them: No one thinks they'll win the series ... which is what makes them dangerous.

And the Lakers ... seriously dinged up and in shock at what they're facing.

Kobe pulled it out, but this team is hurting and with a long road to go anybody putting money down on them at this point is truly rolling the dice. Gasol will have to assert himself just for them to win THIS series and good luck v. Denver or Dallas let alone Cleveland/Orlando.

Sports, and particularly basketball, is a young man's game. This Thunder team may get swept (doubtful) but it has already made an impression and will be back next year with a vengeance.

I mean, my God, when's the last time you have seen a team like this simply contest every shot with sheer athleticism let alone willpower? They're only going to get better so watch out, NBA. Anybody who thinks LBJ will do an MJ six-title run is an idiot. In fact the only way that happens is if he JOINS these cats, who are the most impressive young team in decades.

I've never even HEARD of half these guys, but that's what makes sports great.

Oklahoma City, a city known nationally as the site of a tragic terrorist attack, has something to cheer for. I hope this team stays together and isn't inevitably splintered by greed and free agency, because they are the first ABA team in the NBA since the merger.

Big, athletic, wild yet disciplined enough to make their foul shots unlike so many NBA losers, the Thunder swagger without conceit, run without rap, execute without boredom.

I am on their bandwagon win or lose, because they are fresh, disciplined, exemplary.

A Laker takedown is 50-1, but the future looks bright in national market number 68 (?) so GO THUNDER!