Game 41: A 101–91 loss to the Thunder…featuring OMB’s Fat Boy
A 32-point second half doomed Buzz City on Saturday evening, as Mr. Annoying led the way for the Zombie Sonics with 25.
I really can’t stand the Thunder. I’ve written about this before: I lived a few minutes from Seattle’s KeyArena when Clay Bennett stole the Sonics and moved them to OKC, and I’ll never be able to forgive the franchise. Next to the Patriots (who everyone hates), they’re my least favorite team in all of sports.
On Saturday night, the traitorous team beat the Hornets by ten, stifling an anemic offense in the second half and keeping Charlotte to just 17 points in the third and 15 points in the fourth. Fantastic.
Russell Westbrook is the most annoying athlete in professional sports, and he led OKC with 25. Paul George had 17, Steven Adams had 15, and Carmelo Anthony had just 7. Kemba led the way for Charlotte with 19, but only Marvin, Dwight, and Nic scored in double digits as the bench had an off night as a whole.
Obviously, after winning Friday night against Utah, the team just ran out of energy in the second game of a back-to-back. Coach Silas said as much:
“We started the (fourth) quarter pretty good but after the second group went in they seemed tired. Our first group seemed tired, too. A back-to-back with a quick turnaround was a tough one.”
Makes sense… not enjoyable to watch, but makes sense. Another day, another loss. On to the next.
For the beer on the night, I had an even bigger disappointment. One thing I’ve learned through the first half of the season (yes, we’re officially halfway through) is that some styles of beer just are not my thing.
One of those styles? The Baltic Porter.
Olde Mecklenburg’s Fat Boy wins gold medals. Gold medals. It’s an objectively amazing beer. And I poured 2/3 of my bottle down the drain.
Seriously. I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t do that, but I’m not going to drink something that reminds me of prunes, dammit.
Here’s how they describe their award winner: “When it comes to making fresh, flavorful beer, we say go big or go home. That’s why we created Fat Boy, OMB’s “biggest” beer. But as rich and bold as Fat Boy is, it also nimbly covers a lot of tasty ground, blending sweet, malty notes of caramel, toffee, and chocolate with subtle hints of prunes and raisins. Fat Boy is a big, bold, and bountiful premium craft beer. There’s just no getting around it.”
Caramel, toffee, and chocolate were overpowered by the flavor of prunes and raisins for me, and I simply couldn’t drink an entire bottle. I wouldn’t mind trying a fresh sample from the brewery; maybe the quality was lost in the bottling process… or something. I literally washed my mouth out with whiskey after the 1/3 I was able to drink. Ha.
Sadly then, I had to put this on the same level as Unknown’s Deep State with a firm 2 out of 10 Muggsys. Not as awful as a 1 Muggsy brew, but not much better either.
(Apologies to the real beer connoisseurs out there. My rankings, my rules, and I was thoroughly disappointed.)
As for the Hornets, they don’t get much of a break, as a 12:30 tip off in Detroit on MLK Day awaits. I always love afternoon games, probably because I’m used to watching English soccer during the daylight hours, but I know the players don’t love the lunchtime action. We’ll see if the Hornets can bounce back from Saturday’s loss and beat an over-achieving Pistons team: they’re 22–18 and sixth in the East going into Monday’s day game.
And yes, I’ll be day-drinking for that one. Buzz.
