About what happened to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night..
By Joshua Lea
The OKC Thunder are slipping to the bottom of the Western Conference. Losers of their last three games, OKC is in a strange situation.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are in a free fall in the Western Conference standings. They are 2-3 to begin 2018. I have been rather optimistic about this roster all season. But after last night, I do not believe one can be optimistic anymore.
It was somewhere around the four-minute mark of the third quarter when the realization began to take effect. I remember thinking: how it is that this team has only scored 60 points this close to the fourth quarter?
As I watched with discontent, I began to rationalize why the OKC Thunder looked the way they did. I thought they aren’t moving the ball enough. There’s too much isolation and Carmelo Anthony is struggling shooting the ball.
Eventually the Thunder lost last night 104-88. Yesterday, prior to the game, articles from various writers were flooding the Twitter world, claiming how this team was missing the defense of Andre Roberson. While true, that was far from the situation last evening.
For one, Steven Adams took five shots. Anthony and Paul George made five shots. Terrance Ferguson went 1-of-7 from the floor and 1-of-6 from three. OKC shot 6-of-25 from three last night. As if only scoring 88 points is bad enough, the Thunder managed only six fast-break points. Also noteworthy, they only recorded 13 assists.
Having said all that, Oklahoma City is in a very strange situation – the overall team chemistry and bench production is simply too inconsistent. On a night-to-night basis, the result always varies.
Some nights, this team will score 133 like they did against the Los Angeles Lakers. Other nights, they’ll barely notch 88 against Minnesota. The upcoming schedule doesn’t help the Thunder’s cause. Saturday they’ll play in Charlotte. Then they’ll come home to play Sacramento and the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Waiting for the OKC Thunder to officially “flip the switch” and become that team is exhausting. However, I still believe that they are merely sleepwalking to the postseason. At some point, the results of the work these guys have put in have to show.
Clearly, getting Roberson back will help the psyche of this team. However, the second unit has to be more than Raymond Felton. As the Thunder draw closer to the playoffs, it will be interesting to see if this team can collectively bring effort and bring consistent offense.
I’m sure the players are frustrated. Billy Donovan probably drives to an open field in Moore, Oklahoma and does donuts in his car while yelliing to let off steam. It’s only because we’ve seen how good this team can be.
However, more often, we have seen how bad this team can be.