Murphy’s Law in full effect as OKC Thunder drop Game 5

Murphy’s Law was in full effect as the OKC Thunder got blown out in Game 5 and find themselves in must-win territory.

The bad news was this game was arguably the worst loss by the OKC Thunder this season. That it came in Game 5 of the playoffs to the Houston Rockets who claimed the 3-2 series advantage was terrible timing. The good news is this iteration of the Thunder is used to fighting and clawing their way to respectability and don’t ever give up.

For some teams to lose by 34 points in a pivotal playoff game it would gut them. Those teams would raise the white flag and simply roll over. But this Thunder squad is used to being underestimated — like the two percent chance they were given to make the playoffs in preseason predictions.

Typically we’d post three takeaways to highlight something specific from the game positive or negative but this game served up a unique set of circumstances.

OKC Thunder felled by Murphy’s Law

The old adage – Murphy’s Law applies “anything that can go wrong – will go wrong”.  There were the typical mistakes this club has made all season of starting the game and coming out of the half-time break seemingly staring five minutes after their opponent. Yet, there was a series of unusual occurrences that on a singular basis could be overcome but not when they all happened on the same evening.

Case in point – – in 62 appearances this season Danilo Gallinari missed registering double-digit scoring twice. The first time versus the Nuggets in mid-December when he scored seven and in the final match of the seeding games when he played under nine minutes against the Clippers.

In Game 5, Gallo scored ONE point and took only five shots!

Dennis Schroder briefly gave the Thunder hope collecting 19 points in the first half almost triple the output of the Rockets entire bench (7). But, he was barely subbed into the second quarter when he got hit by an illegal screen and PJ Tucker got hit below the belt. Both were ejected.

Lu Dort who has won more one on one meetings against the league’s leading scorer than he’s lost but he had an off night. At least when he has a bad night he goes all in.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t come close to resembling the player Thunder fans know him to be and looked shaken. Chris Paul was talking to him during a stoppage in play and SGA stared at Paul but you could see in his eyes his mind was spinning – – as he showed his age for perhaps the first time this entire season.

Factor in that he was uncharacteristically having troubles defensively that seeped into his offense as he threw wild passes not even close to his intended target — something you’d be hardpressed to have witnessed occurring more than once all season let alone four times in one game.

Even Donovan made uncharacteristic errors. It became abundantly clear the Rockets were purposely leaving Lu Dort wide open on the perimeter. Dort took 12 first-half shot attempts with eight coming from the perimeter (he missed all eight).

Far too many for his role and definitely something Donovan should’ve put a stop to much sooner than he did. In fact, there were hints this was coming in Game 4, so why wasn’t the Thunder prepared?

Watching everyone stand and look at Dort who was wide open was mind-numbing. There was no player movement, no one coming to set a screen or to allow Dort to do a DHO — nope they just stood there gawking at him which confirmed this move wasn’t expected.

There were ample moments to tell him during free throws or tell CP3 to direct him to drive the paint instead of jacking up 3-pointers that clearly weren’t falling on this night. By the time he finally subbed out he’d taken eight of the nine 3-point attempts he’d take in the game.

From an overall statistical standpoint once again — Murphy’s Law — everything that could go wrong — did!

The 80 points the Thunder scored were the fewest any team has registered in the bubble. For that matter the offense OKC displayed was abysmal. Unlike the Rockets the Thunder doesn’t typically take a ton of 3-pointers. They averaged 35.5 attempts per game in the regular season (ranked 27th) and were in the middle of the road for efficiency hitting 35.5 percent.

However, in Game 5, OKC took 46 perimeter shots, two fewer than the Rockets, and connected on seven or 15.2 percent (YIKES).

Despite the Rockets being the small-ball team (operative word being SMALL) they only lost the rebounding battle by three (55-58) and won the points in the paint scoring by 10 (44-34).

Then factor in the 18 turnovers which occurred often on live-ball turnovers. The OKC Thunder isn’t a pass-heavy team but some of the ball movement on Saturday was head-scratching. Three of the starters (SGA, CPE, and Gallo) had four turnovers each with most due to sloppy passing.

For the second time, this series the Rockets complained about an errant elbow which is somewhat comical given how physical and aggressive they are personally. Let’s start with the Schroder low blow. First of all, the only reason PJ Tucker got hit is he ran out and set an illegal screen.

Forgetting that fact, if you recall the far more egregious kick to Steven Adam’s lower extremities by Draymond Green (his second in the same series) it garnered a Flagrant 1 (so he remained in the game). But the Rockets are pushing for Schroder to be given a greater punishment and this follows their cries for something between Paul and a Rockets player earlier in the series.

Moreover, why are the Rockets continually planting this narrative?

There are only a few options:

1. Houston is trying to deflect on the opposition so the refs ignore their indiscretions
2. The Rockets are hoping to take out a core player via a suspension (first with Paul and now with Schroder)

It sure seems like a big effort unless the Rockets have a specific goal in mind. You’ve just blown out a team by 34 points with the lowest game score in the bubble but still, you’re pushing to get one of the opponents suspended on a play he shouldn’t have missed one game for in the first place. Why?

Well – just like the Murphy’s Law adage another appropriate maxim is to let sleeping dogs lie. OKC isn’t a squad you want to incentivize to come out fired up which is precisely what the Rockets are doing with these actions.

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• 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

In Game 5, the Thunder essentially lost any chance of coming back once Schroder was ejected. Some could opine – well they weren’t going to come back — but remember that is precisely what this team has done this season again, and again and again.

The Rockets got up 2-0 in the series and led in Game 3,  but lost the game in overtime. And just like the Thunder scored the fewest points in their loss on Saturday the margin of victory in the overtime frame was the largest recorded. In Game 4, the club played to their identity coming back to win in the clutch.

Ultimately, poking at OKC with this nonsense will only accomplish one thing and that’s all it’s doing is incensing the Thunder who’ll be aggravated by the implication they play dirty or deserve extra punishment on what was an illegal play to begin with. All this is going to do is fuel their fire to bring it in Game 6. As if they needed added motivation.

Some will spend time pondering the 34 point loss but that large differential should work to hopefully once and for all end these slow first and third quarter starts. It’s all energy it’s like the Thunder start five minutes into those quarters so a beat down like Game 5 is the perfect lesson as to why they can’t afford to do that.

Other than that, Chris Paul was right — it’s one game. Since Murphy’s Law typically is a rarity hopefully it won’t come around for a long time again (like next season).

To that end, on five occasions the Thunder scored under 90 points this season and three of those games happened in the 20 games to start the season when the team was still figuring out their chemistry. One happened against the Bucks and the game last night. .

Moving forward, the OKC Thunder will be back in action on Monday playing to stay in the bubble.