I’m marking this down as the week which could have gone gold gone bad. After the Thunder beat Toronto to improve to 20-15 and pull within one game of the T Wolves in the Northwest, there was all the sudden a feeling of optimism about this Thunder season. A feeling the pieces were coming together especially considering the Thunder had two more home games inside Chesapeake Energy Arena to close out 2017.
But all that has gone flat as for the second home game in a row the Thunder couldn’t as a team do all the little things which ultimately separate contenders from pretenders. Sure, the Thunder still finished the month 12-5 and Russell Westbrook will most likely win Western Conference Player of the Month, but in the big picture OKC is still three full games behind the T Wolves, but more importantly still has the look of a team still searching for its identity and a coach who might be in over his head.
Consider this, OKC’s Big Three of Westbrook, George, and Melo combined for 84 points, but in the end it was rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr. who stole the show at end in the final two minutes as the Mavs won their fourth straight in defeating the Thunder 116-113 on the road.
In the final 1:39, Smith scored 11 of his 19 points and made every clutch play, while quite frankly… Russell Westbrook didn’t. Otherwise, Westbrook had another triple double and dominated the game. But it’s what you do at closing time which really matters in close NBA games.
OKC falls back to 20-17 a full three games behind the T Wolves and now hits the road for five of its next six games.
The storyline here isn’t the bad officiating which has been bad this entire NBA season for various teams, the storyline is as a team when OKC had a glorious opportunity to show it was a serious contender..it wilted with soft defense, some soft coaching, and two bad losses to reset the Thunder back into a gaggle of Western Conference second or third tier teams with Denver, Portland, New Orleans, and maybe even Utah with a healthy Rudy Gobert.
It was in this game I couldn’t take it any longer and muted the volume on the Fox television broadcast and went with Matt Pinto on the audio. I can’t take it any longer….even Antonio Davis. It’s like watching Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders pressers on crowd size.
The Thunder didn’t lose these two games because of the zebras, they lost these two games because as an organization from head coach thru the roster they’re somewhat soft and didn’t bother to play hard for 48 minutes. Their defense didn’t show up against the Bucks or the Mavs. When the Thunder had a glorious opportunity to show the basketball world there was toughness attached to them…they wilted and went south at home against Milwaukee and Dallas.
Don’t get me wrong, Milwaukee should be an up and comer in the East, and Dallas with Carlisle is always interesting even when they’re struggling…but there’s no way this home stand should have ended this way. No way.
So…here the Thunder idle, back with teams with less talent, but apparently with more passion for the task at hand.
The obvious has to be to written…rookie Dennis Smith Jr, thirty-nine year old Dirk, and Harrison Barnes were too much for the Thunder on New Year’s Eve in Oklahoma City on a bitterly cold night to usher in 2018.
Thunder hit the road to play the Lakers on Wednesday.