By: Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Washington Wizards 102-96 in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night. It was an ugly game with little flow. There were a total of 63 free throws shot in this game and both teams shot below 40 percent from the floor. Both teams also shot 28 percent from three point land. Needless to say, this game wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing game to watch. A few critical errors were made in the final minutes of the game that cost OKC the game. It wasn’t as much of the Wizards making plays to beat the Thunder as the Thunder beat themselves. Here are tonight’s five observations.
1. What Was Huestis Doing?
As I mentioned in our previous post, Billy Donovan is going to have to mix and match his lineups to close out games. Tonight, Billy D went with Josh Huestis and it was actually playing out decently for OKC. Josh is not Andre Roberson, but he did nice job on Bradley Beal in the fourth quarter. With the game tied, Josh made three really bad mistakes in the final minute of the game. First, Russell Westbrook kicked to Huestis on the wing. Josh drove the ball and turned the ball over instead of passing to Paul George who was open in the quarter. To compound the mistake, Heustis fouled Tomas Satoransky right after the turnover with 39 seconds to go. That was the second foul in the last two minutes and Satoransky nailed two free throws and OKC was in a hole. Then with the Thunder down four, Huestis got an offensive rebound and awkwardly threw up a shot with 17 seconds left, which missed and essentially closed the door on any hopes of a comeback for OKC. The Thunder desperately need another guy to help close games out. The inexperience left in wake of Roberson’s injury was easy to see.
2. Where was PG in the 4th?
Paul George had a monster night and he scored 28 points on an incredibly efficient 8-14 shooting and 4-8 from three. PG was able to get to the line with ease, as he knocked down 8-10 free throws. But the Thunder didn’t use PG in the fourth quarter. He didn’t get one shot. Not one. Heck, he only got three shots the entire second half. Maybe he wasn’t being as aggressive. Maybe the Wizards guarded him differently. Or maybe the Thunder didn’t do enough to get him looks in the fourth. I’ll go with the latter and that blame sits squarely on the shoulders of Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook. Russ, who had one of his worst games of the season, shot 5-18 from the floor and Carmelo Anthony shot 7-21 from the floor. Melo was 2-7 from the floor in the 4th quarter and Russ was 1-5. Are you telling me you can’t get a guy who is 8-14 just one look in fourth? That’s awful execution and another major mistake OKC made in this game that cost them a win.
3. Russ Was Off
This was a really bad outing from Westbrook, who has been really great over the past two months. But Russ shot horribly from the floor. He went 5-18 for 13 points and was 1-4 from three. Russ did have 10 assists but he had seven turnovers to wipe away the effectiveness he had there. But Russ only got to the line twice, which frustrated him because he was fighting through contact. I think this was just one of those nights where he typically struggles until winning time. ut in winning time tonight, Russ came up empty and so did the Thunder. Russ was flustered on drives and was out of control. OKC needed him to slow down a little and maybe get PG more looks, but for some reason OKC looked for Melo down the stretch. That falls on the point guard.
4. Turnover Festival
The Thunder were horrid with their turnovers tonight. OKC gave up 21 turnovers compared to Washington’s 12. Russell had seven. Adams had four. Melo had three. PG just had one, but every bench player had one as well except for Alex Abrines. The Thunder can’t afford to be that careless with the basketball.
5. Melo’s Poor Shooting Night
The Thunder needed Melo to hit more from three tonight. He had a lot of really good looks, but Melo just went 2-12 from three. It was just an off night for him, but Russ was looking for him instead of PG down the stretch. Melo did do some nice things creating for himself, but OKC needed him to cash in a few more times from deep.
The Thunder will be back in action on Thursday night as OKC travels to play the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night. Tip time is set for 9:30 inside the Pepsi Center.
