By: Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City lose 100-95 to the Brooklyn Nets in Mexico City, snapping their three game win streak. The Thunder were without Paul George and Jerami Grant in tonight’s game and the Thunder really missed them both. But the Thunder still had a double digit lead before the Thunder melted down in the second half. It is the same song and dance from this team regardless of who they are playing. Going into tonight’s game the Thunder had one mission. Just don’t lose. Don’t lose to the bad teams like Sacramento, Dallas and the Nets. But the Thunder found ways to lose to those teams. I’ll shoot straight with you. This is a bad loss. A really bad loss. Let’s dive in on tonight’s five observations.
1. Melo Isn’t a Star Anymore
I’ve never been a huge fan of Carmelo Anthony’s game. I was fired up for this trade because I thought he was going to be a player who could knock down open shots for this team and help space the floor. He is spacing the floor. Look to how well Adams has played this season with the additions of Melo and Paul George. But Melo is spacing the floor on reputation only. Melo has been a bad shooter this year. He hasn’t been okay. He has been flat bad. He is the perfect case of an aging former superstar who hasn’t realized his decline. He thinks he can score on anyone. He can’t. Watch him try and drive in and finish around the rim. He has no lift. His shot is blocked or deflected easily. He is shooting 41 percent from the floor this season, the worst of his career. He shot a horrendous 5-20 from the floor and 0-4 from three. He had a few wide open looks that missed badly. But he took a ton of inefficient shots. Tons of them, especially in the second half. He scored 11 points tonight ON TWENTY SHOTS. That is beyond awful. It is mind boggling. Carmelo Anthony was going to have to score more tonight without PG. But OKC reverted back to slow, sticky, non-ball moving offense. The Thunder tried to use Melo down the stretch and it’s not that he didn’t deliver, it is that he can’t deliver. It is time that this team and Melo himself understands that Melo isn’t that guy anymore.
2. 37 Second Half Points
The Thunder scored 58 points in the first half. They did whatever they wanted and scored even without PG or Grant. But the Thunder played another terrible third quarter and allowed the Nets to cut into the OKC lead. The Thunder had been able to find ways to right the ship in the fourth quarter and hang on to wins over the last three games. But not tonight. Russ and Melo played hero ball and OKC suffered. OKC didn’t run good sets. They took bad shots, Melo especially. The Thunder played inefficient basketball again. Antonio Daniels summed it up perfectly in the postgame saying “Inefficient basketball will get you beat in this league.” It will get you beat by anyone. Look to Sacramento, Dallas, Orlando and now this one. The Thunder have to play Billy Donovan’s way because it has produced wins. When OKC plays hero ball, well, the Thunder get handed losses from some of the worst teams in the league.
3. Who Stepped up and Who Didn’t?
Without PG and Jerami Grant, OKC was going to have different lineups out there. The Thunder bench has been bad as a unit. Paul George has been used with that unit as of late to help sure up their play. It has been beneficial for both the unit and George. But Alex Abrines got the start tonight and he was terrible. He was just miserable on defense, either allowing easy scores or fouled his man. In 26 minutes of action, Alex was 2-8 and 1-3 from three for five points. It looked like he was losing confidence every minute he was out there. He was really bad tonight and it looks right now that he isn’t an NBA caliber player. If he isn’t shooting well, he can’t be out on the floor. As much of a liability Anthony Morrow was on defense in OKC, Abrines has been more of a liability this season. I would liked to have seen Josh Heustis get some run when Abrines is playing like this. Patrick Patterson got some extra minutes tonight and I thought he was perfect. He played some defense. He moved the ball well. He spaced the floor well. He scored seven points on 3-3 shooting and nailed his only three. We had a Kyle Singler sighting and he actually played decent. He scored nine points and hit two of his four three point attempts. Maybe he will get more opportunities over Abrines. Terrance Ferguson played some tonight too and he doesn’t look like he is NBA ready either. It might serve him better to play in the G-League right now.
4. Steven Adams Struggled
Adams has been scoring well lately. Tonight he had a tough go of it as he scored 12 points on 6-13 shooting. Adams was great in the first half, but he had a brutal second half. He missed shots he has been making with regularity this season. OKC could have really used those baskets in this one where the team really struggled to score in the second half. Adams also went 0-3 from the free throw line as well. He just wasn’t very good scoring and OKC really needed him with PG out and Melo and Russ both shooting poorly. Adams did grab 14 rebounds and had nine on the offensive end. He had more offensive rebounds than he had made shots. Billy Donovan singled out Adams in the postgame, indicating the high altitude bothered him the most. That could be an explanation for the poor shooting night since he has been really efficient lately.
5. The Breaking Point
This team has bad habits. We know Russ takes possessions off on defense. It is frustrating at times, but he does so many other things that you live with it. Melo takes off more defensive possessions and then turns around and forces bad shots on the other end. He bought in to moving the ball and being a secondary scorer over the Thunder’s latest three game win streak. Tonight, he wanted to score and not in the flow of the offense. But the team has to recognize that how they play isn’t going to get it done. They lose games by getting away from ball movement and settling for bad shots. We are a quarter into the season and the Thunder look like a fringe playoff team rather than a Western Conference contender. The team has to buy in fully or this thing will blow up in a bad way. There is a lot riding on this season. I think Paul George and Russell Westbrook fit each other. But I don’t know the Melo fits either of them and his play has held the team back. Now, Russell Westbrook hasn’t shot the ball well either as he is shooting the worst percentage since his rookie season. But he has found ways to score even if it’s not always efficiently. But there has to be a point that it doesn’t matter who is playing, what the score is or how much time is left in the game, OKC has to keep running their offense. Clearly the Thunder haven’t gotten to that point yet. But the players have to allow the coaches to coach them. Because when they do their own thing, OKC gets embarrassed by bad teams. That won’t change until the players swallow their pride and play team basketball. Until then, the Thunder are not a good team and this is who they will be.
The Thunder hope to have Paul George back by the time they play next. The Thunder will take on the Grizzlies in Memphis Saturday night. Tip is set for 8 p.m. inside the FedEx Forum.
