OKC Thunder recent wins suggests ‘C’ in OKC equates to ‘clutch’

The OKC Thunder have lived and died in clutch time this season but have seemingly turned a corner with two wins out three.

The OKC Thunder returned home from a mini road trip that witnessed the best and worst of the team. In San Francisco, they fought back from a game they trailed to win in clutch time. Then in Portland, the team got blown out of the gym. Back home versus the Pelicans the team took an early lead, lost it and then battled back entering clutch time to determine the winner.

In many ways, those three games represent who this iteration of the OKC Thunder are. Rarely does anything come easy, seldom are they out of matches and I’m pretty sure the “C” in OKC might equally be in reference to “Clutch” given how frequently the club finds themselves playing in clutch situations.

Having navigated through one of the more difficult schedules in the Association it’s probably fair to cut OKC some slack for the Blazers loss simply based on the sheer elite level of talent they’ve faced. Things could be worse as the three games against each of the Warriors and Pelicans in the initial 20 games didn’t include Zion Williamson or a Dub’s squad we’re accustomed to.

As it is, OKC near the quarter pole with a record of 7 and 11. In past seasons the club would already be planning their summer vacations with a record like that, but incredibly they reside 1.0 game back of the eighth seed and are tied for ninth (Portland) with the ninth best net differential in the West of minus -1.1 (a factor which indicates points scored versus points scored against).

In truth, that’s not far off where most analysts figured they would be. The difference is how many of those 11 losses occurred in the final clutch time segments of games.

Imagine for example if the Thunder had gotten the benefit of those bad whistles in both Lakers games. The first when Danilo Gallinari got whistled for traveling but never moved his feet. Or in the second game an offensive LeBron James foul that sent Hamidou Diallo to the injured list for six weeks but was somehow deemed a defensive foul and cost the Thunder three points aka the game.

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In five of the other nine losses the OKC Thunder entered clutch time with the possibility of winning:

Utah Jazz on October 23, lost 95-100: With just under four minutes remaining the Thunder took the lead 86-85 and once the Jazz took back the lead OKC kept chipping away and was within one score of tying the game right up to the final15 seconds.

Houston Rockets on October 28, lost 112-116: Although the Thunder never took the lead in the final five minutes they came close several times and were within two points with 14 seconds remaining.

Portland Trail Blazers on October 30, lost 99-102: At 4:40 the Thunder held a one-point lead but the Blazers got hot at the right time and the game was within two points with 45 seconds remaining.

Milwaukee Bucks on November 10, lost 119-121: The Thunder trailed by as much as 11 points in clutch time and tied the game with 33 seconds remaining but couldn’t push past to net the victory.

Los Angeles Clippers on November 18, lost 88-90:  OKC held a one-point lead with 31 seconds remaining but couldn’t get the stop and or score in the time remaining to net the win.

Clutch Masters?

On at least seven occasions the OKC Thunder lost they could’ve grabbed the victory if one shot falls, one defensive stance is successful or the whistle goes their way.  And if those situations had been converted the Thunder would be entering Sunday with up to 14 victories instead of seven. That’s how close they’ve been to being a winning team versus a team out of the playoffs.

Moving forward there are copious uncertainties such as what Sam Presti will do before or at the trade deadline. His decisions will undoubtedly affect how the team performs to finish the season.

The one thing that won’t change is this club is dedicated to being a defense-first squad and will compete to the final horn. If Danilo Gallinari and Chris Paul (and/or others) are sent elsewhere not knowing who or what the packages will be coming back makes it difficult to predict how the team will fare to finish the season.

That said, as the team seems to have turned a corner with the wins versus the Warriors and Pelicans coming in the clutch the young Thunder players are witnessing first hand what it takes to close out games.

That more than anything is the most valuable lesson the youngsters learned through the quarter pole. It might not help them this year but it certainly will pay dividends in the future.

And maybe then we’ll refer to them as the Oklahoma Clutch Thunder.