OKC Thunder In the news: Gut check time

OKC Thunder in the news for November 26 focuses on arguably the worst loss this season.

The OKC Thunder entered the week with four games on tap including the top ranked team and the bottom ranked team of the Western Conference.  With the games complete OKC can reflect on a single high note in the week – beating the Golden State Warriors.  Although the Thunder were competitive in games versus the Pelicans and Pistons the results were losses.  In both incidences the games were winnable, but the same issues which have plagued the team all season continue to rear their ugly heads.

Yet, it was the loss to the Mavericks which hangs like a bad smell in the air.  Of the OK3 only Russell Westbrook produced anything close to resembling a star performance in the loss to Dallas. For Paul George and Carmelo Anthony it’s gut check time. As the team prepare for a week with three tough matches OKC can ill afford to keep waiting for chemistry to organically appear.

The issue can no longer be looked past as simply a work in progress. Rather, the squad (and the super stars) need to take ownership via their efforts and doing fundamental tasks.  Undoubtedly the team was tired playing the third game in four nights. But, this isn’t something unexpected particularly for he vets. As a professional the players know this is situation and the super stars need to lead the way forward.

With that here’s In the news for Sunday November 26:

Mavericks may not be tanking:

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

If there was an opponent takeaway from the game last night it would be Dallas have no intention of tanking.  While the OKC Thunder registered a single victory out of the four matches the opposite is true of the Mavericks.  Dallas won two of three pushing the Celtics into overtime. Going back to the week prior Dallas also beat the Bucks. So, in their past four games the Mavericks have wins versus the Bucks, Grizzlies and Thunder.

To put this in perspective Dallas entered the week with a 3-14 record and start week seven with a 5-15 record.  Whereas the OKC Thunder entered week six with a record of 7-8 and end the week with a 8-11 record. Clearly it’s time for OKC to focus on fundamentals and address the outstanding issues. Specifically the lack of player/ball movement and clutch situations. Although TI has preached the need for things to occur organically there is also a point where the squad need to do the fundamentals to make it work.

The post game grades and reaction offer additional high and low lights from the loss in Dallas.

Post Game reaction to loss:

Whether it was the players, pundits or fans — everyone is sharing their concerns of where the team are. Of note, this scribe can’t help but think, if OKC can produce the type of effort they did to beat the best squad in the Association, why can’t they summon the same effort for teams who don’t parallel GSW’s talent?

The above tweet reinforces the fact the Thunder were outscored in the paint 36 to 24 by the Mavericks. Then factor in Dallas rank dead last for points in the paint scoring and it points to why this was a major factor in the Thunder loss.

Ringer provides perhaps the craziest video of week:

NBA Math highlights the shortcomings of OKC Thunder:

In a ‘Where’s Waldo type of search you can easily spot Westbrook and when you keep searching eventually you’ll spot Andre Roberson and Paul George. Good luck trying to locate Carmelo Anthony in this next metric  which in itself points to issues for the Thunder:

Examination of the team metric points to the obvious fact Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Steven Adams have been the best performers. So, with Adams and George having sub par performances in Dallas it was likely inevitable OKC would lose. Or to put it another way, without anyone stepping up to replace the duos of Adams and George’s contributions the loss was inevitable.

Two of the Thunder’s stars make the cut of top TPA performers:

That wraps up OKC Thunder, In the news for Sunday November 26.  Thunderous Intentions hopes your Thanksgiving was enjoyable with plenty of time spent with family and a happy holiday.

Entering week seven the Thunder have three full days off until they play in Orlando. No doubt Billy Donovan and the players (particularly the OK3) need to use this time to make a concerted effort to fix their troublesome offense.

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