By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder fall 3-1 in their opening round playoff series after suffering 113-96 loss to the Utah Jazz. The Thunder got off to an excellent start, leading 30-24 at the end of the first quarter. That was the best 12 minute stretch of basketball of the entire series. However, that is where the good news stopped. The wheels fell off and the Thunder took a nose dive while the Jazz just beat OKC down over and over during the next 36 minutes. It became apparent that the Thunder have been outmatched and outplayed through the first four games. Now the Thunder are on the brink of elimination as the series turns back to the 405 for Game 5. Here are your abbreviated three observations from another deflating loss to Utah.
1. Rubio Bated Westbrook
We knew Westbrook was going to come out aggressive after Ricky Rubio has outplayed Russ over the first three games, leading to Westbrook saying that he would shut down Rubio in the next game. Rubio, a very smart and savvy basketball player, played into Westbrook’s aggressiveness, baiting him into fouls. The result left Westbrook with four fouls with 1:36 left in the first half. Westbrook sort of lived up to his promise, as Rubio scored just 13 points on 4-12 shooting and went 1-6 from three. However, Rubio still outplayed Westbrook in my eyes. First, he baited Westbrook into two extra foul calls in the first half knowing that Russ was going to be coming at him. Secondly, Rubio dished out eight assists compared to just four turnovers and was a plus-22 in his 34 minutes of game action. While Russ scored at a better rate with 23 points, but he struggled shooting, hitting 7-18 from the field and was 0-3 from three. But the glaring stat was that he had just three assists. Three in the whole game. The Thunder had just 10 in the game, a season low. Rubio ran an offense while Russ did not. Simply enough, that was what made Rubio better than Russ on Monday night.
2. Melo was Hard to Watch
The Thunder envisioned Melo hitting tough shots in the playoffs when they traded for him the weekend before training camp opened. They envisioned Melo hitting open 3’s all season. They thought they had a star caliber stretch-four coming to OKC. That guy has yet to show up. Melo scored 11 points on an awful 5-18 and 0-6 from 3. Melo had lots of great, wide open looks. But Melo missed. In this series, he’s shooting 37 percent from the floor and 23 percent from 3 from and is averaging 14.3 points, nearly two points lower than his regular season average. Melo is a liability on defense, much like Enes Kanter was. But Melo can’t even add offense which was why he was brought in. Melo should not be getting 36 minutes in Game 5, which he did last night. Patrick Patterson or Jerami Grant should be getting more minutes Wednesday night. The Thunder should play and coach like their lives depend on it, and we know Melo isn’t aiding in saving the Thunder’s season.
3. OKC is Outmatched
There is no other way around it. The Thunder have been a step behind all series long. Even in Game 1, where OKC won, Billy Donovan thought OKC would have to play better to win. He said it before a question was ever asked. He was right. He saw past the great shooting night PG had. He saw that they needed to play better. They needed to play harder. They needed to do the little things better. They needed to do everything better. They have had moments where they have played really great basketball. But they can’t sustain it for more than a few minutes at a time. Meanwhile, the Jazz play together. They play hard. They play as a team while OKC has had trouble playing together well in this series. Even though the Thunder aren’t dead yet, I’ve seen enough. Utah is the better team. That’s been easy to see over the first four games. Now, OKC can still win the series, but it will take a miracle.
The Thunder will host Game 5 Wednesday night in a must win situation. Tip is set for 8:30 p.m. inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
