By: Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder fall 104-101 to the San Antonio Spurs Friday night in San Antonio. The Thunder held a first half lead of 23 before the Spurs mounted a comeback. The Spurs tied the game up at 78 at the end of the third quarter. The Spurs scored the first basket of the fourth quarter and never trailed the rest of the game. It was another frustrating night for Thunder fans as they watched the Thunder dominate their opponent to start the game just to watch OKC slowly melt away from what got them a 23 point lead. Here are my five biggest observations from tonight’s game.
1. Another game and another blown lead for the Thunder. OKC got out to a hot start tonight, outscoring the Spurs 32-15 in the first quarter. And early in the second quarter the Thunder even held a 23 point lead. Then something changed. The Thunder stopped forcing turnovers and the Spurs began hitting open three’s. I mean, wide open three’s. Then the Thunder offense bogged down. Shots were rushed. The defense then suffered. But OKC couldn’t right the ship. The Thunder were outscored by 10 in the second quarter, seven in the third and three in the fourth quarter. Too many times the Thunder are outscored in the final three quarters after a tremendous start to the game. I don’t know if the Thunder are struggling to make adjustments or if the Thunder relax and the team thinks they can just coast to the finish. But the Thunder can’t seem to figure out how to fix whatever is going on.
2. The Thunder aren’t executing down the stretch. In 10 point games, the Thunder are 1-8 on the season. That simply isn’t going to cut it. After the first few weeks of the season with a couple tight losses, we all chalked it up the the Thunder’s lack of continuity. It’s early, right? With this team’s talent, they’ll surely figure it out? Well now a few weeks later and a few more tight losses, it has become a trend. Tonight, there were three straight possessions in crunch time where Russell Westbrook drove down the floor and passes right to a Carmelo Anthony post up. Melo, who was guarded by LaMarcus Aldridge, took contested jumpers and missed. It was like going back in time. How many times have we seen the Thunder do that over the years? Russell would drive down and pass to Kevin Durant who was in the mid-post with his hand straight up in the air? We saw that hundred of times over KD’s eight years in OKC. But now Russ is throwing the ball to an old Melo. The Thunder can’t afford to waste possessions with iso heavy Melo possessions. Not when Russell Westbrook and Paul George are on this team.
3. This Thunder team isn’t going to work unless Russell Westbrook plays better. Plain and simple. There seems to be an imposter wearing Russell Westbrook’s jersey these days. Russ doesn’t look comfortable. He doesn’t look as explosive at the rim. His mid-range jumper is non-existent. His shooting percentage is the lowest it’s been since his rookie year. And tonight, Russ was not good. Westbrook was 5-22 shooting tonight and scored just 15 points. Russ was only took four three’s, missing them all. Russ missed a lot of shots right at the rim. Those were all going in last year. But right now, Russ doesn’t look like the same guy and the Thunder are suffering from it. If this OKC team is going to turn the quarter, it has to start with Russ. At least Russell still grabbed nine boards and dished out nine assists. But the inefficient shooting is keeping this team bottled up.
4. Steven Adams returned after missing the past three games and his presence was certainly felt tonight. Adams scored 16 points, grabbed eight boards, six offensive, and blocked two shots. Adams did an excellent jobs grabbing those six offensive rebounds which lead to easy put backs. But something that the Thunder do that drives me crazy is their defensive switching. OKC’s defense is really good. But their defensive rebonding is not. But the Thunder still insist on switching their only big onto a small guard. In the play where Aldridge got an offensive rebounds and put back that extended the Spurs lead to three inside a minute to play, Adams had to switch onto the speedy Patty Mills. Mills took Adams away from the basket and away from Aldridge. Aldridge was easily able to get the offensive rebound over Paul George for an easy putback. If Adams didn’t have to switch on Mills, likely Adams would have secured the miss over LaMarcus. The Thunder would have had the ball down just one instead of down three. I’m not suggesting that the Thunder stop switching all the time, but I do think switching Adams away from the basket isn’t a good idea.
5. The Thunder as a whole aren’t shooting all that well to start the season. Count me as surprised that this team is having a hard time scoring the basketball. OKC shot just 43 percent from the floor and 39 percent from the floor. It’s not bad but not great either. But the big three just shot a combined 19-55 for 53 points. That’s less than a point per shot. OKC can’t afford to have their stud scorers shooting such an awful percentage from the floor. It starts with Westbrook, but Melo and PG have to be better, too. Whether it is bad offense, bad shots, forced shots or something else, this team needs to remedy this issue or the Thunder might end up with a disappointing season.
The Thunder face a tough New Orleans Pelicans team in New Orleans Monday night. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. inside the Smoothie King Arena.
