By: Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder falls 116-103 to the Charlotte Hornets Monday night after another disastrous third quarter. The Thunder now falls to 12-14 on the season and things don’t seem to be getting better. The Thunder seem to be running in quicksand and sinking deeping and deeper away from playing good basketball consistency. It would be one thing if the Thunder were losing to decent teams in the league who can push teams every night like the Jazz or the Timberwolves. But the Thunder are losing to the bottom half of the league. The Thunder lost to Brooklyn last week, a team who has no shot at making the playoffs. The Thunder were very fortunate to beat Memphis Saturday night and the Grizzlies are a team who had lost 12 of their last 13 going into that game. And now the Thunder lose tto a team in Charlotte who had won only one game on the road all season coming into tonight. Let that sink in. Here are tonight’s observation’s from another mind boggling Thunder loss.
1. 3rd Quarter Meltdown
OKC got down early in the 1st quarter. They trailed by as many as 12 in the opening frame and trailed by eight after the first quarter. OKC figured some things out in the second as they tied the game up at the break. Charlotte got a little lead again in the third. The Hornets got out to a five point lead to start the third when OKC made a five-zero run, capped off by a monster Russell Westbrook dunk to tie the game at 66-66. The Thunder seemed to gaining some momentum. Maybe they figured some things out and was going to close this out like they did against the Utah Jazz last week. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The Hornets went on a 22-2 run and blew the game wide open. Charlotte went on to score 40 points in the frame, outscoring the Thunder by 22 in the third. OKC couldn’t come back from that. They cut the lead to 11 at one point in the fourth. But there was never a feeling OKC was actually threatening to make this a game again. The Thunder have been horrific in the third quarter this season. Tonight was the worse third quarter of the entire season and it is why the Thunder lost this game.
2. Russell Westbrook: Another Bad Night
Russ’ season is perplexing. It’s easily the worst since his rookie year. Last year he owned the NBA. He was the MVP. This season he looks like a shell of himself. He can’t shoot. He hasn’t finished well. He hasn’t shot free throws well. His post ups haven’t worked. His patented pull up jumpers have been awful. We’ve seen glimpses of the real Russ this season. But for little spurts at a time. It’s a mystery what is going on with him. Russ scored 30 points tonight. But he didn’t shoot all that well going 10-22 from the floor. He did shoot free throws well tonight, going a perfect 9-9. But he had one assist in the second half. ONE. The Thunder had just 16 in the game. To me, the Thunder success starts and ends with him. He has made it that way. He controls everything. The offense. It’s flow. And when he isn’t shooting well and can’t find guys for open shots or guys to knock down an open shots, then this team will struggle. The Thunder struggling are tied to Russell’s struggle.
3. 12-14
It is time to be honest here. The Thunder aren’t very good. This isn’t a good team. The Thunder has talent. There is star power with Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Steven Adams is a blossoming young stud in the NBA and Carmelo Anthony is a fading star. Jerami Grant, Patrick Patterson and Raymond Felton are all guys who have played well in this league. Andre Roberson is an elite NBA wing defender. There is lots of talent on this team. But they aren’t a good team. And I’m starting to worry they aren’t going to figure it out. After a while you are what you are. And 26 games into this season, this team isn’t good. Why? I don’t know. There is a lot to point to. Is it Billy Donovan? Or is it Russell Westbrook, PG and Melo not gelling? Is it the lack of solid bench players? Is it that PG and Russ fit and not Melo? Or is it that the message Billy D has is falling on deaf ears? I don’t know what it is exactly. But I do know frustration is setting in. How can it not? The Thunder haven’t lived up to expectations. And it might be time to understand that they won’t.
4. Melo Left Quickly After the Game
After Thunder games I will wait outside the Thunder locker room for the locker room the be open to the media. I never sit and listen to Billy Donovan talk in his postgame press conference. Sometimes the locker room opens before Billy is done talking. I don’t want to miss the players and we already have another member of our team in the press room with Billy. Sometimes players will leave the locker room before the room opens up. But those players are typically ones that were inactive or didn’t play in the game. But the first person the leave the locker room tonight was Carmelo Anthony. Anthony came out five to 10 minutes before the media was allowed in. He left before Billy even took the podium for his news conference. This was so odd to me because in my two plus years covering the Thunder, never has a main player left as soon as Melo did tonight. And it was really odd because Melo has talked to the media after every game. He has answered every question. He has been a complete pro. That is why him leaving like he did was so odd. It’s very clear frustration has set in with the team.
5. Billy Donovan’s Future
Firing Billy Donovan doesn’t fix what is going on with the Thunder. Actually, it just proves how hard it is to coach OKC. We all said the same things we are now towards the end of Scott Brooks’ tenure in OKC. And here we are again. I think Billy Donovan is a good coach. I do. And I see when the Thunder succeed, it has been when the team follows what he is coaching. You can see the team do well when they run and offense. When they really defend well. But there are too many times when what Billy says and coaches isn’t being run on the floor. What that says to me is that the team isn’t listening to Billy D unless they are behind and whatever junk the team is doing isn’t working. That seems to be happening more and more. It feels like he has lost the team. At some point, the owners aren’t going to put up with this. They are paying millions in luxury tax fees this offseason. They don’t want to do so for a below .500 team. You can’t fire all the players. But you can fire a coach. If things don’t turn around soon, then I think dismissing Donovan of his duties will become more of an option.
The Thunder are back in action Wednesday night at 6 p.m. as Paul George makes his return to Indiana to face his old team.
