I didn’t check the Vegas spread on this game before tip, but I would have probably had Boston favored at something like -1.5 or so. Additionally, if I had ranked the top ten teams in the entire NBA I would have had Boston at No. 7 and Oklahoma City at No. 8 in my power poll.
In reality, this was a one possession game when Marcus Smart turned over Shai G. Alexander with under ten seconds left in the game.
Boston made a couple of plays at the end…Oklahoma City didn’t.
OKC will look back on this game having to live with the fact it missed a bunch of shots at the rim or near the basket. Dennis Schroder especially struggled in this regard.
I thought Steven Adams was especially disappointing only hitting 2 of 10 shots. You don’t pay $25 million for this level of performance against a Boston team which has nothing special at the center position.
Billy Donovan giving Terrance Ferguson 26 minutes was puzzling. In those minutes his line read…0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 fouls, -2.
Lu Dort’s minutes were pulled back to 11 minutes in spite of Ferguson not doing anything. Hey…I would roll with a hot hand, but there was no need to roll with something which wasn’t even slightly warm let alone hot. He doesn’t do anything. He can’t dribble. He rarely gets to the rim. He’s at best a pedestrian rebounder. Even Andre Roberson cpuld back cut to the rim.
I don’t understand the fatal attraction to Terrance Ferguson given in fact his team has not been able to count on him for significant portions of the season to be there for them.
OKC’s Big Four combined for 92 points, but didn’t get enough from its supporting cast, plus the missed shots around the rim came at just the wrong spots in the game.
You shake it off, you study the things which need to be done at a higher level and go to the next game which is against the struggling San Antonio Spurs.