OKC Thunder: 3 takeaways in OT loss to the Lakers

OKC Thunder takeaway No. 2) A tale of two halves

Throughout the course of the season, we’ve witnessed the OKC Thunder fall behind — usually by a lot — in the first quarter and spend the next three quarters fighting their way back into the game.

But just like that, the Thunder have flipped the script on us.

Lately, the Thunder have found themselves on the opposite side of the large first-quarter runs. Against the Lakers on Wednesday, the Thunder erupted in the opening minutes to surge ahead by 17 points.

It’s a nice change, but with the good also comes the bad.

The Thunder controlled the first quarter of the game against the Lakers on Wednesday. The team played about as strongly as they could, given the opposition. They continued to do the same early in the second quarter, extending their lead to 20 before the Lakers found a way to narrow the gap to single digits.

The problem seemed to be how much energy was expended by the Thunder in the first half of the game. Although the team is young, they can only play so hard for so long before fatigue begins to set in and slow them down.

The OKC Thunder did a pretty solid job of battling through and making the shots they need to keep their lead intact. However, by the fourth quarter, the Lakers began to find lanes open that were previously closed or a Thunder defender playing off the perimeter, setting the Lakers up for an open 3-point attempt.

Still, the Thunder could have pulled off the win twice in the game. Once came after LeBron James hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at the end of the fourth quarter. Dort had a shot as time expired but missed.

James was largely ineffective in overtime, and the Thunder had one last opportunity to go for the win. James’ tipping away the ball on the inbound pass kept the Thunder from ever getting that chance.