OKC Thunder zoned out in loss to Heat: 3 takeaways

That darn first quarter:

Head Coach Billy Donovan made two excellent points in his post game conference regarding the OKC Thunder poor starts. As you may recall this narrator has harped on the starts for a while now and while everyone focused on the third quarter (yes it’s also important) the first quarter establishes the flow and pace of a game.

Donovan touched on this as well citing the fact the Thunder tends to respond instead of dictate. Which is precisely what OKC do, especially recently.

The other key Donovan insight was tied to OKC’s propensity to come back and win in the clutch, but that should be a tool the Thunder can pull out occasionally not something they rely on constantly. Personally, this felt like the best comment he’s made all season and now he just needs to find a way to drill this into his team.

It’s not like the players hit the court saying ‘ah, don’t worry we’ll get them in clutch time’. However, there may be a subconscious aspect to this since they’ve won so much in those scenarios.

Whatever the case, this habit of starting slow has to stop, especially when playing the elite clubs.