Posted on November 20, 2017

The Oklahoma City Thunder drop another game after having another double digit lead in the first half. This time a  114-107 defeat to the New Orleans Pelicans. It is the same story we’ve seen all season long. The Thunder look incredible in the first quarter. OKC was up 19 points in the first before falling apart and being outscored in the second, third and fourth quarters. The Thunder have dropped to 7-9 on the season and 2-7 on the road. Here are tonight’s five observations from another frustrating Thunder loss.

1. To open the game, OKC lead 25-6 midway through the first quarter. The Thunder looked like world beaters, forcing turnovers and executing beautifully on offense, getting open look after open look. But we’ve seen it before. The Thunder look like the team we thought they’d be before the revert back to who they are. At this point, this Thunder team is a bunch of really talented players who can’t figure out how to play together. Maybe it is coaching. Maybe Billy Donovan isn’t the coach to figure this all out. Maybe it’s Russell Westbrook. He might not be the point guard who can lead a super team without being able to relinquish all of the playmaking abilities. Maybe it’s Paul George or Carmelo Anthony. I don’t know what the main issue is, but I think it’s safe to say that it could be a combination of the two. But I have no idea where the Thunder go from here. Sure, it is early. But it seems like nothing the Thunder does works right now.

2. Paul George has been the best player on this team for a couple weeks now. Russell Westbrook, who had a triple double tonight, still isn’t himself. But George, who hasn’t been a tremendous shooter this season, has impacted the game in so many ways. Tonight, George lead the team in scoring with 26 points and hit 6-10 three pointers. George was a hound on defense, gathering up five steals. He’s been great this season but I don’t think the Thunder feature him enough in the fourth quarter. I don’t think they allow him to be a playmaker with the ball in his hands. The one time the Thunder threw it to PG in the fourth to make a play, he drove to the rim and dished to Steven Adams from an easy score. It was by far the easiest points the Thunder scored in crunch time. But they didn’t go back to it and the Thunder never really threatened to make the closing minutes interesting.

3. What is up with Russell Westbrook? I know he had a triple double, scoring 22 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and dished out 12 assists, but something seems off about Russ. I know he isn’t shooting the ball well. He scored 22 on 6-19 shooting and was 2-7 from three. He has been completely off shooting the basketball this season. He seems passive, looking to pass and set up guys for scores rather than scoring himself. He also wants to set everything up. He holds the ball and will only pass if he thinks who he is passing to will have a chance to score. He needs to let the offense move and find it’s ways to scores rather than control everything on the court at all times. But as I’ve written, the Thunder needs a better Russell Westbrook for this to work. So far, we haven’t seen a better Russ.

4. The Thunder defense was torched tonight. Giving up 114 points to the Pels is way too many. OKC was outscored 58-36 in the paint, and Demarcus Cousins was kicked out of the game in the third quarter because he elbowed Westbrook in the head after grabbing a rebound. The Thunder still couldn’t stop the Pels. Anthony Davis ate the Thunder’s lunch, scoring 36 points on 9-19 shooting and brought down 15 rebounds. OKC couldn’t figure out of way to stop him and they sent him to the free throw line too many times. Davis went 18-22 from the line. That’s a recipe for a loss.

5. The Thunder bench stunk tonight. They were not good on defense and really didn’t play well on offense. The Thunder got some production from Jerami Grant, but I thought everyone else was not very good. Alex Abrines hit a couple shots in the first quarter but missed wide open looks the rest of the game. Felton hit a couple shots but he was not good on defense. And Patrick Patterson was unbelievably bad. The bench unit is not coming together like we thought during the first two weeks of the season.

It certainly doesn’t get any easier for the Thunder because Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors come to town Wednesday night. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

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