By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder win 111-110 in overtime Wednesday night over the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder once held a 15 point lead in the second quarter before completely collapsing and having to grind out another lackluster win over a sub .500 team. The Thunder needed this win, and they got it, albeit in frustrating and disappointing fashion. The Thunder lacked good execution in the second half as well as a sense of urgency. Yet, the Thunder found a way to win and at the end of the day, that is all that matters. Here are tonight’s five observations from OKC’s uninspired win over the haplas Mavs.
1. OKC Lucky to Have Steven Adams
The Thunder really struggled to score, especially late in the game. But Adams found ways to generate extra offensive possessions by grabbing nine offensive rebounds. He was able to get OKC extra looks and he essentially saved OKC’s bacon. He scored just nine points on 4-4 shooting and grabbed 12 total rebounds. Adams was one of the few players for OKC who played well in this game. He was a monster on the offensive end, even though he was largely ignored on the offensive end. Adams is an offensive threat. It’s time the rest of the team recognized his ability instead of forgetting about him as the game moves along. The Thunder would have walked out of the arena tonight with a loss tonight without Steven Adams. Plain and simple.
2. Good Russ. Bad Russ. Goodish Russ.
Russ started the game off beautifully. He had his cotton shot from the mid-range going. He was in control of the game and the Thunder jumped out to a 15 point lead. Russ started the game shooting 8-14 from the field. But at halftime a different team came out in Thunder blue. Soon the Thunder’s 11 point lead turned into a deficit. Russ was largely responsible. Russ shot the ball horrendously in the second half, going 0-8 from the field. He was out of control, too. He lost the flow of this game, turning the ball over nine times in this game, which is completely unacceptable. Russ began attacking in the overtime sessions and OKC took over the game again, scoring nine points in the extra five minutes. Russ also had some really bad defensive gambles that lead to easy dunks. That’s nothing new, but just incredibly frustrating. The Thunder need Westbrook to be more under control, like he was in the first half if OKC want’s to gain traction in the standings.
3. PG Was Good Despite off Shooting Night
Paul George couldn’t hit a jumper to save his life last night. He really had some good looks from three and in the mid-range, but he couldn’t get them to fall. He did a nice job of not settling for outside shots and he did a good job of attacking the rim. He finished through contact, despite not getting the calls from the officials. PG scored 26 points on 8-18 shooting and was held to just 2-7 from three. But George also did an excellent job rebounding as he came down with 11 boards. He also did a nice job of moving the basketball, coming up with six assist. PG did a good job defensively. one of the few Thunder players that played well on that end of the floor. PG did struggle with turnovers, but more on that in a second. It feels like with Russ struggling to shoot and PG struggling from three, that the offense had bogged down some. If PG can get his three point stroke back, OKC could really take off.
4. Thunder Turnover Issues
The Thunder were way too loose with the basketball last night. OKC committed 22 turnovers and dished out just 19 assists, a recipe for a loss. OKC’s turnover extravaganza was lead by Westbrook, who committed nine by himself. Thunder PG joined in with four of his own. Of OKC’s 22 turnovers, the two guys who have the ball in their hands the most combined for 15 turnovers, which is just miserable. To be honest, 15 turnovers in a game by a team is borderline too many. But between two players? Sheesh. The Thunder need to value possessions way more than they have been since the All-Star Break. That starts with the Thunder’s two studs.
5. Billy D’s Lineups
I’ve had it with Donovan’s lineups. I loathe the lineups with the second unit where PG, Adams or Russ isn’t in the game. I think it is foolish to have that group out there without a member of the Big 3 out there (and yes, I am saying Adams if the third and not Melo). But what I want to focus tonight’s irritation on is the fourth quarter. Alex Abrines was not having a great night. He was getting blasted on defense. The Mavs singled him out every time down the floor until Billy had to take him out. Billy went with Raymond Felton, which OKC was lucky that they were playing Dallas, who is notorious for playing two small point guards in JJ Barea and Yogi Ferrell together to end games. OKC was doing a decent job of scoring off second chance points in the fourth, but OKC couldn’t stop anyone because Billy went with Abrines and Felton. Look, Felton hit some big shots, so I got why he played Felton. But if Josh Huestis was on the floor, OKC could have gotten better stops. And Josh was 2-5 from three, which was better than Abrines. I thought it was bad move and it prevented OKC from creating any cushion, which could have kept OKC from going to overtime.
The Thunder move to 36-27 on the season and are next in action on Friday night against the Suns. Tip is set for 8 p.m. inside the Talking Stick Resort Arena.
