For the first time since the Miracle in Philly almost a month ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder reverted to massive underachiever status with a horrible 131-122 loss to the reeling New Orleans Pelicans.
The Thunder had a chance to go into the All-Star break as the hottest story in the NBA and draw within a game of Denver in the West for second place.
It was there for the taking with Anthony Davis not playing a single minute in the second half in front of what has to be an angry New Orleans fan base. You’d think that would be the perfect recipe for the Thunder even without Jerami Grant and Dennis Schroder in the lineup. But instead the storyline was the Pelicans won the second half 65-59 without Anthony Davis playing a minute after halftime.
Nerlens Noel was a nice story for the Thunder scoring 22 points. But even with Noel having his best night since joining the Thunder and Anthony Davis not playing beyond halftime it wasn’t enough.
Russell Westbrook had his best offensive night of the season scoring 44 points on an 18-30 shooting night and triple doubled for an 11th straight time. So in essence, you could say Westbrook absorbed the missing points from Schroder not being in New Orleans with the Thunder.
It wasn’t what you would call a bench thing either as Ray Felton kicked in 9 points to go along with Nerlens Noel as the Thunder bench actually outscored the Pelican bench by a 35-34 margin.
It was more of Paul George for the first time since Philly going 3-17 shooting threes and not being able to bail out the Thunder as he has during the previous run of games this past month. Not to be cruel, but on this night, Paul George looked more like Rudy Gay than a serious MVP candidate.
You can’t write that on the Oklahoman or Dailey Thunder, but I just did because I have my own blog and I don’t have to play the bullshit game of hovering around NBA superstars to maintain media access. This to me is the downfall or myth if you will in the age of contemporary sports journalism as it appears to me the writers with the most access both on and off the record rarely if ever write anything worth reading.
But in this game give Pelican coach Alvin Gentry some credit. He challenged his team and they responded with Jrue Holiday and Julius Randle both producing plus thirty point nights and in essence making the big plays at the end. Sometimes pride still matters in the modern era of collective bargaining in the NBA and on this night it was somewhat refreshing to see effort and focus rewarded to the New Orleans team given the fiasco which is now playing out in New Orleans.
I’m a firm believer Anthony Davis should not be playing anymore this season. He and his agent made their intentions clear before the trade deadline. He should just sit and then be traded this summer when the Pelicans can get the maximum in return to move forward with Holiday and Randle.
Kevin Durant never did this. Russell Westbrook never did this. Their agents never demanded a trade during a season as best that I know. They honored their deals. This should not have played out like this in New Orleans especially in a market of which has had to be weaned with special care since Hurricane Katrina and the entire George Shinn saga. The fans deserved better.
But at the end of the day…the NBA isn’t a fans’ game, but more of an agent-superstar driven game.
The Thunder hit the break at 37-20, but missed a glorious chance in New Orleans to continue the narrative they could be something special in May.