OKC Thunder face red hot Suns – 3 keys to match

OKC Thunder key No. 3: Erase the memory of the previous match via effort

While tanking is the order at hand, what occurred last night versus the Pacers is completely unacceptable.

OKC allowed the Pacers to score 42, 40, and 44 points in the first three quarters before finally limiting them to 26 in the final frame.

Indiana led 82 to 46 at the half a 36 point differential. It marked the most points scored in a half against the franchise. Diving deeper into the numbers the Pacers were shooting 70 percent from the field and an absolutely ridiculous 61 percent from the perimeter. The final numbers aren’t much better as Indiana finished with efficiencies of 65.5 percent from the field (another franchise-worst) and 63.6 percent from the perimeter.

The only saving grace for the team was that they managed to limit Indiana to three points while OKC scored 10 points to close the game. It was the only thing that stopped the Thunder from registering the worst margin of victory in NBA history.

Again, tanking is one thing — losing that badly is embarrassing and unacceptable. As head coach Mark Daigneault said in his post-game presser:

"“It’s embarrassing, I’m not going to try to spin that. It’s tough. It’s demoralizing.”"

If the Saturday match had been the second game of a back-to-back maybe there could be a bit more leeway extended but it was the first match. The lack of focus was present in all areas of the court. The defense was the most dominant but was also reflected in the shooting efficiency – the OKC Thunder shot 34.2 percent from the field, 21.1 percent from the perimeter, and most abysmally 47.8 percent from the charity stripe.

While the mandate remains to lose, the players need to all bring effort in this match on the defensive end of the court in particular. The team can lose and improve their draft position but allowing an opponent to absolutely annihilate you isn’t the culture of Thunder basketball.