By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder drop Game 3 115-102 in Salt Lake City. The Thunder were beat in every phase of the game. OKC’s defense was not locked in the whole night, other than a small period in the second quarter where OKC took at 12 point lead. The Thunder offense had it going in the first half, but that came to a screeching halt after halftime. There was zero ball movement. There were lazy passes with lots of standing around. There was lots of bad basketball from the men in Thunder blue. On the other side, the Jazz played their game and took OKC to town. It was an ugly and disheartening loss for OKC. The Jazz now take a 2-1 lead to a pivotal Game 4 on Monday night. Here are tonight’s five observations.
1. Ricky Rubio Sinks OKC… Again
After burning OKC from 3 in Game 2, Rubio destroys OKC again in Game 3. Rubio went off, scoring 26 points on 9-18 shooting (7-9 from inside 3), grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 10 assists. Rubio garnered a triple-double and outperformed the “Triple-Double King”. Rubio did everything he wanted. He got into the lane and found ways to score and assist. He was incredible and ran circles around the reigning MVP. I said after Game 2 in those 5 Observations, in our Facebook Live session and today on the radio, that OKC couldn’t let Rubio go off again. The Thunder might want to guard Rubio in Game 4.
2. Where is Russell Westbrook?
The Thunder missed Hero 0. He’s not been good in this series, even in Game 1 when OKC won. Russ was miserable on both ends of the floor. Let’s start on offense. He scored just 14 points on 5-17 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out nine assists. But the stat of the night with Russ was his EIGHT turnovers. He committed more turnovers than he had made shots. He was wretched running the offense. I know this sounds like blasphemy, but it almost felt like the Thunder scored better with him off the floor. He ran zero offense, forced bad turnovers, walked back on defense and the Jazz would score. As bad as he was on offense, he might’ve been worse on defense. Rubio cooked him all night. He didn’t get back on defense after turnovers. Once the Thunder got Westbrook off of Rubio, they switched him onto Joe Ingles, who hit several wide open 3s with Russ cheating off him in the fourth quarter. I’ve seen tons of Russ games over the years. This one was as brutal as he’s ever played.
3. 4th Quarter Meltdown Continues
The Big 3 for OKC scored 7 points combined tonight and that was all via Paul George. Westbrook has scored two points in the fourth over the past two games. Melo has scored none. The Thunder have no shot if that continues. I thought the Thunder would respond after their awful performance in Game 2. But the Thunder have been just embarrassed in the the fourth quarter in this series, even in Game 1 when OKC allowed a 18 point lead evaporate down to six. The Thunder are in real trouble, and this is a huge reason why.
4. Adams Foul Trouble
Steven Adams has been a non-factor in this series thus far, especially in Games 2 and 3 due to foul trouble. The Thunder can’t afford to have him off the floor. Adams scored just eight points and grabbed a laughable two rebounds. Meanwhile, when Adams is off the floor the Jazz are going super big with Gobert and Derrick Favors. OKC is being roasted on the glass when he is out. Adams must stay out of foul trouble. Billy had a great adjustment with Patrick Patterson coming in early at center for Adams. Favors typically goes out earlier and Utah will go small. So OKC went small and Gobert had to come out on Patterson, which allowed Westbrook or PG to get to the rim or kick out to Patterson from 3. Then Adams reentered the game when Favors came back in to combat his rebounding over OKC’s second unit. However, Adams nullified this adjustment when he got into foul trouble and had to sit the rest of the opening half after he got his third foul with just over eight minutes left in the half. Adams has to be in for OKC and he can’t continue to be a non-factor.
5. Fast Break Points and Points off Turnovers
The Thunder are a team that likes to create turnovers and then get out and run. The Thunder did a nice job creating Utah turnovers, forcing them into 19. However, OKC scored just 15 points off those turnovers and the Thunder scored just four fast break points the whole night. OKC didn’t play their game at all. Meanwhile, the Jazz forced OKC into 17 turnovers and scored 33 points off them. The Thunder are losing at their own game.
The Thunder will get another opportunity to get this bad taste out of their mouth. Game 4 is set for Monday at 9:30 p.m. in Salt Laker City.
