Oklahoma City Thunder fail to show up against Phoenix Suns
The Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night. Let’s get this over with.
Do I really have to do this? My editors are telling me I have to do this. I’m so sorry. Not quite as sorry as the performance of the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Phoenix Suns, but still pretty sorry.
149. Final. 118. 66. 111
The Thunder, a team supposedly fighting for the fourth seed in the West, lost to the Suns, a 19 – now 20 – win team at the bottom of the Western conference. Even worse, they gave up 118 points tonight after giving up 114 points the night before. The defense was non-existent all game, allowing the Suns to shoot 49% from the field and giving up 54 points in the paint.
Offensively, the Thunder had 14 assists to 19 turnovers. That’s bad. Really bad.
Following Thursday’s collapse against the Portland Trail Blazers, I was hoping that the team would respond in a big way. I know it was the second game of a back-to-back, and this team is brutal on the second game of a back-to-back, but Phoenix played Thursday night as well. They didn’t have to travel, but that’s no excuse. The Suns had less than 20-wins prior to tonight. The Thunder were “the team that no one wanted to play in the playoffs” 48 hours ago.
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Russell Westbrook had his fourth straight 40-point game, which would sound a lot cooler if OKC weren’t 2-2 in those four games. Maybe he should get back to getting triple doubles?
Doug McDermott has not shown up these last two games, because when you put on a Thunder jersey and travel, you just forget how to shoot. Steven Adams was dreadful against Portland, and didn’t bother showing up against Phoenix until it was too late. Andre Roberson’s defense has turned into Andre Roberson’s offense. Any talk of Alex Abrines’ starting once Victor Oladipo returns, is now dead, because Abrines can’t stay on the court against teams that are smart enough to attack him on defense.
Westbrook tried to will them back into the game in the fourth, but it was too little too late. And even though Westbrook had 20 out of 32 points in the fourth, they still gave up 31 points in the quarter. Showing up in the fourth was nice, but it would have been nicer if they showed up in the second and third when the game got away from them.
Against the Suns. A team that had 19-wins coming into this game.
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Russ took 12 threes (hitting only 3) because someone hasn’t told him that when he takes 9+ threes, they lose 95% of the time.
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Maybe Norris Cole is the problem. The Oklahoma City Thunder were 3-0 after the trade deadline, but are now 0-2 with Cole in the lineup. Maybe it’s time to go back to Semaj Christon? I’m just looking for ideas here because these past two games have ruined friendships.
Billy Donovan tried playing Jerami Grant at center at one point. So clearly he’s looking for ideas as well.
The Thunder look to play something resembling basketball on Sunday against a Dallas Mavericks team that has more wins than the Suns.