With the Westbrook injury, this series just went from a ho hum, big brother little brother affair to a full blown rivalry. We were never going to seriously challenge them this year to create any real angst. But with the injury, they now hate our freakin' guts. Good. I anticipate Houston becoming a legitimate contender within the next 2 years after acquiring another allstar. When that happens, OKC and the Houston, two of the youngest teams in the playoffs, will be battling it out for Western supremacy for the next decade. Before we already had the James Harden connection. Now we have bad blood. This is going to be fun.
It would be a lot more fun if this was all just a continuation of the Rockets/Sonics rivalry, which is what it should be...
For me, it is. I don't hate the Thunder like I did Seattle. But they're the same franchise as far as I'm concerned.
It's not a rivalry untill we have consistent, competitive basketball. 1-5 against OKC doesn't meet that criteria. We still need another star.
We got their Harden and neutralized Westbrook . Their window for championship might just be closed. I feel we already win.
Same was said of L.A. in '09... Artest bucking up to Kobe, Fish decking Luis at the top of the key, Shane spilling blood all over Staples, Luis jawing with Walton, Deke taking the reins from Yao. Ah, the good ol' days.
No we don't. Bad blood maybe. But rivalry? We need to at least play at the same level, win some and lose them, then we are qualified as rival.
didnt they blow us out 3 out of 4 times this season? now 4 out of 6 times including the playoffs? their record against us including the playoffs is 5-1... if this is a rivalry, then the Phoenix Suns are our archnemesis.
OKC HATES us and we HATE them. That's the definition of a rivalry plus it's in the playoffs. This rivalry started when OKC traded Harden now the hate within each other just makes it official