Not a good two day pre Thanksgiving west coast swing for the Thunder. On Tuesday night they lost to the LA Lakers for the first time since March of 2014. Not much better tonight in Sacramento as the now 6-9 Kings led wire to wire and did not lose a single period against the suddenly reeling Thunder.
The final score read 116-101. As I sat there watching I never had any feeling Oklahoma City was going to win this game because they had no answer whatsoever for Demarcus Cousins who double doubled with 36 points and 13 rebounds.
Darren Collison had 21. Rudy Gay had a nice second half for the Kings. Ben McLemore made a couple of shots and basically that was enough to beat a Thunder team which all the sudden is 2-7 in their last nine games.
Same story for the Thunder as Russell Westbrook had a line of 31-11-9 with only three turnovers. Westbrook got to the free throw line and lived there, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t get much of any help from the rest of his team excluding perhaps Victor Oladipo and Andre Roberson. Oladipo had 18 points and six boards. Roberson did some nice things with a 10 point, 5 rebound game, but you need more than this.
OKC’s bigs had no answer for Demarcus Cousins and it was too easy for him. Usually, in past games against the Kings you could always count on a Cousins meltdown as the Thunder would once again beat the bumbling Kings. But on Wednesday night, the Kings clearly were the better, more poised team and it was relatively easy for them.
For this OKC team to have any chance they have to grind defensively and this team has quit grinding defensively. OKC’s best games have been against the Clippers and Rockets when the defensive effort was there. The defensive effort isn’t there presently.
OKC needs another player in a bad way. Someone Westbrook can lean on and who can lessen some of his load. Opposing teams are sloughing off of Roberson and basically taking away the paint from Westbrook and Adams.
When the season started it was obvious OKC would need something from either Singler or Morrow coming off the bench at the small forward position. Both have been massive underachievers to this point. Alex Abrines evidently can only play decent in home games. These three guys were being counted on to produce some three point shooting for the Thunder, but as a whole have been nonexistent. Add Roberson’s inability to shoot and the lack of Thunder spacing is a problem.
Russell Westbrook can’t win games by himself. That’s not going to work. Billy Donovan and Sam Presti need to figure something out. Cam Payne will help when he gets back, but OKC needs a small forward who can actually make a basket.
The once 6-1 Thunder are now 8-8 and reeling against bad teams. Not a good sign.
OKC is in desperate need of some players stepping up and getting a win in Denver on Friday night.