By Michael Doutey

The Oklahoma City Thunder fall Friday night at home 114-100 to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Thunder got off to a nice start, gaining a 16 point first half lead before hitting a wall and OKC could never recover. The Thunder had no answer for Anthony Davis, who scored 43 points. The Thunder just played their fifth game in seven days and every game was played in a different time zone than the previous game. The Thunder played in two back-to-back games in that span and were coming into this game after a tough loss at the buzzer in a late game in Denver the night before. After a disappointing loss to Denver, the Thunder flew back into Oklahoma City around 4 a.m. and it was easy to see that fatigue set in on the Thunder as the game went along. Here are tonight’s five observations from OKC’s loss to New Orleans.

1. “We Ran out of Gas.”

“I thought in the first half, I thought that our guys came out and really played pretty well. We ran out of gas, and I’m not making excuses for our guys, I just thought in the second half we really struggled, we certainly didn’t make shots or execute on both ends. But they were fighting and doing the very, very best that they could. I thought, both offensively and defensively, we certainly struggled in the second half.” -Billy Donovan

After a tough week, I think fellow Morning Animal,  Curtis Fitzpatrick summed up with game best

This felt one of those scheduled losses the NBA gives you. Lot of dead legs out there.

— Curtis Fitzpatrick (@cfitzfox) February 3, 2018

The Thunder came out with good energy. They really took it to New Orleans and were up by as many as 16 early in the second quarter. OKC held a 10 point lead for most of the second quarter until the final two minutes. That’s when OKC’s legs gave out and the Thunder really struggled on defense. The Thunder’s shots were all short as well. The Thunder had a grueling schedule this past week. Five game in seven night. Lots of travel. Two back-to-backs. As Curtis said, this was one of those losses the schedule hands you. That makes it really tough to be overly critical of the team. They deserve some criticism, and I’ll certainly get into it, but let’s keep in mind that these guys are human. They get fatigued, too.

2. Westbrook Was Bad

Here we are again. Russell Westbrook records another triple-double and I felt he played poorly. Russ scored 16 points on an awful 7-21 shooting, including 1-7 from deep. While Russ had 14 assists, he also had nine turnovers. He also grabbed ten boards. So, Russ nearly had the quadruple-double with turnovers. Russ was really bad on defense. He was his typical ball-watching, not fighting over screens self. He was really bad in the second half, scoring just 7 points on 3-13 shooting, 1-6 from three, five turnovers and was a minus-13 in the plus-minus. There were times Russ could have drove the ball in the half-court and in transition where he tried to make a pass and it resulted in a very bad turnover. I think fatigue set in, even if he won’t admit it. Russ was asked after the game if the schedule and the travel may have affected him or the team. “No,” was his answer.

3. PG’s Poor Shooting Night

Paul George was sensational Thursday night In Denver. He dropped a cool 43 points, which is his season high, and was instrumental in OKC’s comeback attempt that feel short. For his encore? Well, PG was a dud. He scored 15 points on a poor 4-16 shooting, including 2-9 from three. Most of PG’s shots came up short and his defense was a step behind. Even his on-ball defense was slow. It was just one of those nights for PG who has been incredible over the past few weeks.

4. Steven Adams Battled 

Steven Adams was the only starter who had a good game. Adams was everywhere, trying to cover Anthony Davis, which is tough on any night and even tougher when you’ve played five games in seven nights. Adams scored a team-high 23 points on 8-13 shooting, including 7-10 from the free throw line. Adams also came down with 12 rebounds, seven on offense and five on defense. He also had two blocked shots. He was out there trying to cover everyone’s defensive mistakes, but there was no hiding how bad OKC was on defense tonight. Adams couldn’t have saved OKC all by himself. But he did try.

5. Abrines and Grant’s Strong Night

Alex Abrines had two good games in back-to-back nights. In 29 minutes in Denver, Alex scored 13 points off the bench on an efficient 4-7 shooting and going 2-5 from deep. He also had two blocks. TWO. To follow that game up, Alex scored 14 points on 4-8 shooting, all of which were from three. Alex knew he needed to step up, and after falling out of the rotation, it looks like Alex has made the most of his opportunity to prove himself. Jerami Grant also had another nice night. Grant ran a lot of both games with the first unit. Tonight, Grant scored 12 points on 6-7 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds. This might have been on of Grant’s best games of the season. Right now, Grant will close games out with the starters. While both Grant and Abrines have played well individually, these two aren’t good enough to close games out when it comes to playoff time. This week should make it clear to Sam Presti that OKC must make a move at the deadline. Sam and his staff has made this a do or die season with Paul George. It looked like OKC was going to be a threat in the postseason until the Roberson injury. Now, OKC looks like pretenders rather than contenders. With the possibility of PG and Melo walking at the end of the season, Sam has to do something to help this team. The trade deadline is just six days away.

The Thunder now fall to 30-23 after a three-game losing streak. The Thunder will be back in action Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Tip is set for 1 p.m. inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena