Is The Thunder Talking Smack?
Raymond Felton has called out the Thunder.
The Denver Nuggets’ point guard, according to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post, says he wants Oklahoma City in the playoffs.
“Hopefully we get Oklahoma City because I feel like we owe them,” Felton said. “Everybody (else) is pretty much whatever, whoever we’ll be ready to go, but I want them though,” Felton said. “They were doing a little bit of trash talking, so I want them.”
This is the point in the program where we say be careful what you wish for, big boy. The Thunder just smacked you at your place and thumped you back in Oklahoma City. Denver’s a good team. But the Nuggets aren’t good enough to start calling out opponents, and a backup point guard who hasn’t so much as won one playoff game should be the last one talking. But I digress.
The real news in this story is that Felton claims the Thunder did some trash talking. That’s not something we’ve heard about this team. And it’s something the organization doesn’t want to be associated with as it attempts to grow a classy franchise. But Nuggets coach George Karl backed up his point guard’s claim.
“There’s no question there’s a cockiness to Oklahoma City that we’re anxious to see if that’s what we’ve got to go through,” Karl said.
Whoa!
There’s no doubt the Thunder is confident. Ask anyone inside the locker room about how this team stacks up against the rest of the league and they’ll tell you they can play with anyone. But cocky? Well, that just seems to be sort of a stretch. Even after the biggest wins of the season — at Boston, at Utah, at Dallas, at home against Orlando, at Miami and against the Lakers in L.A. — the Thunder never poked out its chest, strutted its stuff or bragged or boasted.
In between the lines, in the heat of the moment, there might be a different story. And the Thunder must have said some pretty memorable things for Felton to pop off. You should also suspect his teammates feel the same way. They might be smart enough to avoid supplying bulletin board material, but Felton, you would think, wouldn’t speak out of turn and put added pressure on his team without his teammates’ backing. Even if the rest of the Nuggets don’t admit it, Felton has to know they feel the same way.
Just more fuel on top of what already is a fast-growing fire between these two.
-DM-
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