San Antonio Spurs 93 — Oklahoma City Thunder 85
Again, I’m trying to be as kind and gentle in my recaps as possible. I thought long and hard about my headline after this game. Thought about going with Thunder Choke in San Antonio. Then thought about going with Thunder Shrink in Fourth Against Spurs. But when really thinking it through decided to go with Thunder Lose to Fourth Quarter Again being the most accurate because I believe the Thunder may have overtaken the tanking Sixers for the league lead in blowing fourth quarter leads.
So there’s this to begin with. But keep in mind I’m still in kinder, gentler mode because Donald Trump is enough of an asshole for all 330 million Americans combined. Sometimes filtered honesty is humane and believe me anyone covering this Thunder team needs a big dose of filtered honesty right now.
Actually–it was a decent game to watch. OKC’s defense was pretty good as the Thunder led 67-65 entering the fourth. The Spurs struggled mightily shooting threes and it appeared OKC could maybe be headed for a huge upset win over the Spurs.
But there it was. The clock showed 12:00 minutes remaining and everyone who has been watching this team knew in their hearts the Spurs were going to be okay and improve to 32-0 at home this season. Which is exactly what happened as the Spurs or the fourth quarter itself beat the Bad News Thunder 27-17 to propel the Thunder to 4-8 since the All-Star break.
It was a combination of everything. OKC didn’t make a field goal for almost the final four minutes of the game. Russell Westbrook made a boneheaded gamble on a steal which led to a wide open three by Danny Green. The Thunder repeatedly got outhustled on their defensive boards during Winning Time or in this case Losing Time. Like I said, it was a combination of things. Little things rolled into a clay ball which are making it impossible for this team to beat the fourth quarter regardless if it’s against the Timberwolves, Spurs, or Warriors.
Charles Barkley is calling our Thunder chokers. But I think it goes deeper than that. It’s the way these guys have been allowed to play for so long I believe that’s more the cause along with the fact Billy Donovan is learning right now coaching the Florida Gators and coaching a once elite NBA team with two mega millionaires isn’t exactly the same thing.
OKC is now 4-8 since the All-Star break which is completely unacceptable for a team with two completely healthy superstars. We never saw any stretch like this during the Scott Brooks era with a healthy Durant and Westbrook. The Thunder’s ability to win bounce back games after a loss was a team trademark.
But not with this team, and again as I wrote in my preview, there are no excuses. Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Kanter are all healthy. In the NBA when your four highest paid players are all healthy and you’re still losing something is wrong with your team.
Something is wrong with this team.
Mike Jackson