The OKC Thunder looked vintage in this contest versus the Houston Rockets …but not in a good way. Three key takeaways detail what went wrong in the match
On Monday night, the second night of a back-to-back, the OKC Thunder traveled to Houston to take on Russell Westbrook and the Rockets. Obviously this was the first time the team played against their former franchise star Russell Westbrook, and this game showed flashbacks of previous iterations of the Thunder, but not in a good way.
After dominating the Golden State Warriors on Sunday Afternoon in Oklahoma City, the Thunder tried to string two wins together during their first back-to-back of the year. With Russell Westbrook and James Harden sharing the floor against the “Who knows” Thunder, we figured tonight would be a lightness test. It was, and the Thunder failed…or at least showed us who they really are.
There were a lot of takeaways that barely missed the cut. Like the recurring theme of this season: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is extremely good! Also, Russell Westbrook broke his own “no friends on the court” rule when the Fox Sports Oklahoma camera’s caught him shaking hands with Thunder staffers just before tipoff. Of course, after the game, Russ showed love to every single member of the Thunder that he once played with.
Let’s get into the 3 takeaways
Second verse same as the first
The OKC Thunder spent the last two years struggling mightily in the third quarter, digging themselves in holes that they struggle to get out of. The same happened tonight.
After posting 35 points in the first frame, and leading by as many as 15 in the first half, the third quarter saw the boys in blue fall behind by 13.
In that third period, the OKC Thunder were outscored 39-18. The team could not buy a single bucket or closeout on any Rocket shooter. That leads us directly into our next takeaways.
The Superstar Offense is back!…but why?
At the end of the second quarter, and throughout the entire third quarter, we saw an all too familiar theme with the Thunder offense. A ton of iso, no movement, bad shot selection and draining the shot clock all the way down (so much so they committed a pair of 24-second violations).
That offensive model barely worked when the Thunder trotted out Paul George and Russell Westbrook every night. When your two iso players are Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder, as it was tonight, you are in deep trouble.
The Thunder found offensive success in the first and fourth quarters by relying a ton on ball movement, and off-ball action. Heck, one possession, even Nerlens Noel had the ball at the top of the key with the shot clock on 5 seconds, and no one cutting off the ball.
Billy Donovan has long been heavily criticized by OKC Thunder fans, and there is still a large contingent of the Thunder faithful who want Donovan fired this moment. Tonight, he did not do much to help his cause.
His offense clearly works. When the Thunder run some of his sets and actions he ran at the University of Florida they have a ton of offensive success. However, even tonight, without a superstar on the floor, his offense still gets scrapped in favor of an iso heavy format.
There is no way Donovan himself is preaching for Schroder, Paul, and even Gallo to just iso the entire third quarter, right? So is he being simply being ignored? It is a very weird situation all the way around.
It was incredibly strange to see the team get away from that in the middle of the game, and it cost the team yet another win as it has so many times in the past few seasons.
The veterans finally played disengaged
Listen, I get it, it is the second night of a back-to-back and the third game in four nights. However, this was still the first time the veterans who everyone assumes are biding their time with the Thunder while waiting to be dealt to a contender, looked as so.
Chris Paul had a forgettable game, in a contest that I am sure he had much higher hopes for going against his former team. Dennis Schroder and Danilo Gallinari looked disinterested in two things: Defense and passing, especially in that dreaded third quarter.
While Gallo is an excellent sharpshooter, and the best pure shooter on the team, when watching him tonight he missed a lot of open teammates and took plenty of bad shots. Dennis Schroder was really just lacking defensively.
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His offensive struggles were a result of Billy Donovan playing a three point guard lineup that sees two of the three PG’s at any given time just standing around offensively and not able to get into a rhythm.
The veterans refused to rotate defensively, leaving Rocket shooters open in the second half and allowing them to pull away. The veterans on this team looked like they were playing the second night of a back to back following the quick start.
Luckily, the team did fight back though, but without those veteran struggles, a sloppy third quarter (putting it gently), and a stagnant offense, this game would have gone in favor of the Thunder.
While the standings say the team has a 1-3 record, they competed in every single game, and really feel like they should have won all but the Utah opener. When playing so many young players big minutes though, the what could’ve been game will show it’s ugly head all season.
Hey, at least Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nerlens Noel turned in very good games!
Up next, the OKC Thunder welcome in the Portland Trail Blazers and try to get back on track.