.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxfjOT6AOfg

Oklahoma City Thunder 132 - Toronto Raptors 125

Box score: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975792http://

Russell Westbrook: Triple doubles: 23rd this season & 102nd career triple double - 37 points, 14 assists, 13 rebounds.

Thunder on a 6 game win streak; snapped Toronto's streak in Air Canada Center to 11 games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNRE2IloiWw
Moses parts the Red Sea!

Russ and Steve you made the nation proud today. Take that Canada.

https://i0.wp.com/thunderdigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/TD-Meltdown-2.png?w=850

Excepts from Raptors' fans posts . . .


Gotta admit, that OKC+6.5 makes me think we’re gonna have some home town officials tonight!
Melo stabbing the side of his head with his cheeto-dust covered fingers is repulsive.
how come nobody on our team can get to the rim for easy bucket like westbrook
OKC is a bad matchup for the Raptors…would not be confident in a playoff series against them.
OKC came to play.
OKC will not continue this shooting especially Melo. Everyone chil
Are these guys hungover ?
Raptors look big time hung over
GO UNDER RUSSEL AND ADAMNS SCREENS HOLY **** I DONT UNDERSTAND
this team isn’t doing **** in playoffs with these starters
Westbrook and Brewer is a lethal combo in terms of running the floor

Raptors Meltdown! 3.18.18: http://thunderdigest.com/2018/03/18/raptors-meltdown-3-18-18/

Might have been a bit early to call this “a disaster of a season.”

If you learn anything from watching full NBA seasons, it's not jump to conclusions too early. It's a long season. Things change, teams change. OKC's 2015-2016 run in the playoffs almost came out of nowhere as they'd never played the lineups or styles that succeeded in the playoffs. Who would haver ever thought that Corey freakin' Brewer would solve OKC's lineup problems? (Then again, we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Corey Brewer will keep working like he is now...)

But, yeah, this team has been fun to watch since the Brewer pick up.

Despite all of the (admittedly frustrating) ups and downs this season - which caused an unbelievable amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth here, on Twitter, elsewhere, talk of a “disaster of a season,” calls for Donovan to be fired, calls for Presti to be fired, calls for stars to be traded, calls for Roberson to be traded or benched (we saw what losing him did) after all of that armchair owner/GM talk, the Thunder currently has the sixth-best record in the league.

Regarding Brewer: everyone is talking about his scoring, which has obviously helped over the past six games. But honestly I haven’t felt like it has to be maintained at that clip, which it won’t, because his current output is unsustainable, ESPECIALLY his shooting percentage. I think the main thing he has brought is running the floor, creating disruption, and providing energy to an offense that was mostly reliant on Russ alone to bring energy.

I’m not sure in ten seasons I’ve ever seen another Thunder player who consistently got down the floor ahead of Russ’ fast break. Not saying he’s faster (impossible, probably), just saying that he anticipates the break, gets out early and down the floor. This provides Russ so much more room to work during the break. And honestly, just giving Russ energy to feed off of is so important.

Historically in my opinion “bad Russ” only emerges when others aren’t trying. He gets fed up with teammates who stand around and just call for the ball or simply act like spectators. KD was a prime example of this. Plain and simple he just wants teammates who play hard and work to disrupt. Roberson was that on defense of course but also on offense. Even with the lousy shooting he was still running, cutting, etc. Brewer is bringing the same level of activity and mayhem.

Casual observers - including many in sports media - confuse “bad Russ” with “Takeover Russ.” We see less and less of “Bad Russ” these days, even in losses, and it’s no coincidence that he almost totally went away when KD departed. Bad Russ is frustrated Russ, being forced to do it all himself because his teammates disappeared on him (which Durant did constantly via being double or even triple teamed, not fighting to get open, not moving without the ball).

“Takeover Russ” is the guy we saw yesterday afternoon, and who we’ve seen often the past couple of seasons. Takeover Russ appears when all of his teammates (or at least some/most) are working hard, moving without the ball, defending, rebounding, causing disruption, providing legit scoring options. Takeover Russ turns that situation into a slice and dice and makes opponents look silly and flat-footed. Takeover Russ only shows up when he’s required to be the deciding factor in an otherwise hard-fought game. Takeover Russ is a very, VERY good Russ. The best thing Brewer can do is enable Takeover Russ.

Regarding ‘15-‘16 and Donovan’s lineups - I’ve said this here and to anyone else who will listen - it became painfully obvious during that WCF run that all of those wonky lineups were experiments and tinkering that allowed him to know his team fully and to out-Pop Pop, and to outcoach Kerr (which he absolutely did). This wasn’t apparent UNTIL THE PLAYOFFS, which made it seem like the run “came out of nowhere,” but it really didn’t, once we all understood what he had been doing all season. That’s why the constant bitching about lineups this year has driven me crazy, as if nobody remembers that run, which was during Donovan’s FIRST SEASON.

Donovan is a VERY good coach. We just needed players to gel, accept roles, make updates to their (sometimes log-held) style of play, set aside alpha-dog aspirations, develop chemistry, and without question Brewer’s spark has been important (though same results were happening right before Robes was hurt).

One more thing regarding ‘15-‘16: that team - that frustrating, wonky team with underperforming superstar talent, a bench that wasn’t especially deep and weird lineups all season - that team SHOULD have won the WC title and maybe the Finals. This became apparent when the real team (and Donovan’s excellent coaching) emerged during the playoffs. Other than KD’s existential conflict/crisis (I can bore for hours on this topic) and his head being elsewhere, it WOULD have. Bad Russ only showed up because he knew KD was checked out. Might not have know why, but he knew something was up. So people can say “Russ failed in that WCF also,” but I’d only refer them to my Bad Russ vs Takeover Russ analysis.

Bad Russ was in large part a creation of Kevin Durant. There are no such head cases among this team’s group of All-Stars.

Not looking to make too many Bold Pedictions yet, but playoffs is certainly not bold. FiveThirtyEight.com has apparently crunched numbers and calls it a 99% certainty. Even before Brewer’s emergence - and I know numbers were iffy - I think talk of them MISSING playoffs was a bit extreme/silly. But now I think even a first-round exit would be unlikely, due to the way they seem to be coming together at a perfect time. I’d be disappointed if they don’t at least make it to around 2, and I think WCF is eminently doable. If they can make a decent run, I think signing PG is pretty likely. Who knows, after that.

My inside source at the Thunder thinks PG will re-sign long term. Let's hope so. This guy told me 2 years ago during the playoffs that he thought Durant was 60/40 to sign again but did have some doubt that he would.

Yeah, I really do think the Thunder is PG’s best option, and I’m trying to look at that not as a Thunder homer. If he feels good about the direction, it makes a ton of sense. I don’t think he’s looking to be the alpha on an also-ran or a rebuild project, and other than a jump to GSW - which I don’t think he’s weak-minded enough to contemplate - he stands as good a chance to win a title here, where he is already integrated, knows the team, coach, owners, culture as pretty much anywhere else.

I’ve been thinking about the cap issue and my knowledge regarding contracts and cap space is somewhat limited. Just know that the Thunder would have to break the bank and pay insane luxury tax to keep it constituted roughly the same as it currently stands. So my question is this to someone who knows better - or if not I’ll go research it - could Carmelo’s people approach the Thunder with an offer to opt out next season and sign something like a multi-year deal with most of it backloaded and guaranteed?

Seems like that would me a nice guarantee for Melo, whose marketability is waning. I wouldn’t blame him for just riding out next year’s fat player option, but it wouldn’t help in signing PG and not sure he’d get much anywhere else for subsequent years.

I’ve been thinking about the cap issue and my knowledge regarding contracts and cap space is somewhat limited. Just know that the Thunder would have to break the bank and pay insane luxury tax to keep it constituted roughly the same as it currently stands. So my question is this to someone who knows better - or if not I’ll go research it - could Carmelo’s people approach the Thunder with an offer to opt out next season and sign something like a multi-year deal with most of it backloaded and guaranteed?

Seems like that would me a nice guarantee for Melo, whose marketability is waning. I wouldn’t blame him for just riding out next year’s fat player option, but it wouldn’t help in signing PG and not sure he’d get much anywhere else for subsequent years.

Yes, this is a great point. In fact, I think it's probably the Thunder's best course of action. It's done all the time in the NBA, where they negotiate with a player to opt-out of an expensive one or two year contract, but agree to resign him for longer term, thereby guaranteeing him more money and saving the organization a ton.

By the way, Urbanized, I love the post above on the "Bad Russ" meme. It's spot on and captures the nuances most NBA fans do not bother to think about when analyzing Russ.

From what I have found. Most NBA fans love Russell.

Rockets and Warriors fans are the only ones that seem to hate Russ/OKC.

Despite all of the (admittedly frustrating) ups and downs this season - which caused an unbelievable amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth here, on Twitter, elsewhere, talk of a “disaster of a season,” calls for Donovan to be fired, calls for Presti to be fired, calls for stars to be traded, calls for Roberson to be traded or benched (we saw what losing him did) after all of that armchair owner/GM talk, the Thunder currently has the sixth-best record in the league.

As one of those that said I was reserving any complaining about this team until after the All-Star break....... Still no complaints from me.

I don't know if it's Brewer being familiar with Donovan or what made him click with the team so fast but I am really liking what I'm seeing from this team at this point in the season.

At the start of the season I was just hoping to get a playoff spot. Now we are battling for a Division Title and flirting with home court advantage to start the playoffs.... And I'm not naive enough to say we will win the conference or the title but I'd say our odds are trending in that direction more than away from it.

...By the way, Urbanized, I love the post above on the "Bad Russ" meme. It's spot on and captures the nuances most NBA fans do not bother to think about when analyzing Russ.

Thanks. These are things I have thought for years; almost as long as the Thunder has been here.

. . .
One more thing regarding ‘15-‘16: that team - that frustrating, wonky team with underperforming superstar talent, a bench that wasn’t especially deep and weird lineups all season - that team SHOULD have won the WC title and maybe the Finals. This became apparent when the real team (and Donovan’s excellent coaching) emerged during the playoffs. Other than KD’s existential conflict/crisis (I can bore for hours on this topic) and his head being elsewhere, it WOULD have. Bad Russ only showed up because he knew KD was checked out. Might not have know why, but he knew something was up. So people can say “Russ failed in that WCF also,” but I’d only refer them to my Bad Russ vs Takeover Russ analysis.

. . .

Anybody who says that is a moron. Russ literally won us Game 1 of that series in the 3rd quarter, and Games 3 and 4 were won by everybody but Russ and KD.

At no point did KD ever show up on the offensive side of the ball in that series (to be fair, that was the first and only series he ever played a higher level of defense for the Thunder). He shot something like 28% from 3.

Not Russ's *best* series, but without him we would have been out in 5, instead of going back to Oakland with a 3-1 advantage.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/3/19/17138146/oklahoma-city-thunder-contenders-western-conference-playoffs

I don't think there is any chance Melo opts out of his deal, but if he does opt out then I think it would be to leave. That's probably best for OKC in my opinion. Melo is due to make $27 million next season and he'd probably only get around $8-10 tops on the free market (which is still an overpay) so there's just no incentive for him to do it.

Even if Melo opts out (which I'd prefer), OKC would still be over the cap and have no money to sign anyone. Even if PG opted out too, OKC wouldn't have much money as they've got $90 million committed to 8 players already. Resigning Grant and some minimum vets like Felton and Brewer would be best case probably. Russ' enormous contract will make it hard financially on OKC going forward.

Even if Melo opts out (which I'd prefer),

Agreed. This is the only piece of the current puzzle I wouldn't mind losing.... Well and Singler but is he really a piece of the puzzle?

If you read the link I posted last night from The Ringer it has some interesting info/perspective on Carmelo and some reasons to believe he’s still a very important piece of the puzzle. Here it is again: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/3/19/17138146/oklahoma-city-thunder-contenders-western-conference-playoffs

From what I have found. Most NBA fans love Russell.

Rockets and Warriors fans are the only ones that seem to hate Russ/OKC.

Back in January the Mrs and I was walking around Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica. We ran into a man with a Thunder shirt on and naturally we struck up a conversation. He was from Iowa and said he loves them because of Russ. He had never been to an NBA game but was fascinated with the competitive intensity Russell plays with.

If you read the link I posted last night from The Ringer it has some interesting info/perspective on Carmelo and some reasons to believe he’s still a very important piece of the puzzle. Here it is again: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/3/19/17138146/oklahoma-city-thunder-contenders-western-conference-playoffs

I read the article and totally agree with it. But that doesn’t mean he’s worth it going forward as he continues to age. If he wins OKC a title then I’ll change my mind. Lol.

A disgusting, unacceptable loss against a depleted Boston team. Make your damn free throws.

A disgusting, unacceptable loss against a depleted Boston team. Make your damn free throws.

Lack of defense. Marcus Morris for 3! Carmelo or George should take last shot. Bad loss to depleted team.

Lack of defense. Greg Monroe for 3! Carmel or George take last shot. Bad loss to depleted team.

Marcus Morris hit the 3. If Monroe had hit the 3, I would have thrown my tv out the window, which I almost did anyway when Anthony missed both free throws.

OKCs best game of the season was against Toronto. It's only fitting that they'd follow it up immediately with their most heartbreaking of the season.

Luckily Portland lost. Would have been sitting really nicely if OKC had just hit free throws and we could go into the Blazers game with a chance to make up huge ground on them.

Luckily Portland lost. Would have been sitting really nicely if OKC had just hit free throws and we could go into the Blazers game with a chance to make up huge ground on them.

This was a RAGGEDY game with reckless play. There's enough blame to go around. Melo can't make a free throw down the stretch; as a team free throws (19 of 29 for 65.5%) are our Achilles heel. Thunder shouldn't have been in this situation with a Celtic team missing key players.

Free throws:


Thunder: 19 of 29 for 65.5%
Celtics: 15 of 16 for 93.8%

Missed opportunity to gain ground on Portland (lost to Rockets 115-111) for the 3rd seed.

So what did Ferguson contribute for his minutes? Why does Adams get shut out in the second half? Why does this team take Boston lightly?

Free throw percentage of NBA teams. The Thunder are second to the last, being closer to last than to the team just above them.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/free-throw-pct

Reversal of fortune. Spent years among the best in the league.

Well, it should have been a better outcome -

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2765874-l2m-report-marcus-morris-committed-violations-before-hitting-winner-vs-thunder

Gotta be close to a half-dozen L2M reports at this point which acknowledge missed calls that would have resulted in Ws for the Thunder. Unbelievable.

That said, no way should they have let Boston come back on them.

.

Oklahoma City Thunder 105 - Miami Heat 99

Box score: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975830

Hey guys refugee from (the soon to be shutdown) Landthieves here.

My handle over there was SG1 and I mainly only posted in the Thunder thread.

Anyway, don't know what the temperature is here but me and a few others are pretty disappointed in how the season has gone, think the Thunder have underachieved and it's time for a coaching change unless Billy pulls a rabbit out of his hat in the playoffs.

Eh, I would like to remind everyone what Billy did 2 years ago. It seemed as he was always tinkering and when the playoffs came, he showed what was up his sleeve. I believe he will do great, until he doesn't. That won't happen until post-season.

They’re currently 4th seed in the West, better over the past 10 than GSW, probably have one of the top 2-3 records in the league since December (though I don’t have numbers to back it up) have shown the ability to beat pretty much every other elite team (and soundly at that). They were coming together in a pretty incredible fashion until Roberson was hurt, then dipped, but have shown great resurgence and energy since the addition of Brewer. Also, when you take even an unbiased look at league L2M reports over the season it’s aguable that their record should include 4-6 more wins.

Also, OkiePoke’s Donovan assessment is spot-on; his critics seem to have completely forgotten how ‘15-‘16 looked right up until he out coached Pop and Kerr and might even have a first-season ring without a KD meltdown (which might not have even been a real “meltdown”).

I’m not sure what people’s expectations were, but I think a lot of them were unrealistic. Was everyone expecting a championship this year? Personally I felt like getting to at least the second round of the playoffs and finding a way to secure PG13 and possible championship contention next year was the best we could ask for. That is totally on track right now, and owing to the current GSW injury situation a WCF appearance is even still highly attainable.

Eh, I would like to remind everyone what Billy did 2 years ago. It seemed as he was always tinkering and when the playoffs came, he showed what was up his sleeve. I believe he will do great, until he doesn't. That won't happen until post-season.


Eh, I would like to remind everyone what Billy did 2 years ago. It seemed as he was always tinkering and when the playoffs came, he showed what was up his sleeve. I believe he will do great, until he doesn't. That won't happen until post-season.

I am totally in agreeement with this. Billy is a mad scientist in reg season and what he does is plays players in certain situations to get a look. Fans may not realize the look is he doing its mostly hidden. It may not even be the player we think it is. If the other team has a certain style of player he may try things to see how defense responds.

Then in playoffs he has a massive data base of every situation and can imsert players at key moments. It worked great 2 years aog. Even vs Rox last year the starters outscored Rox starters yet we were undermanned.

When you look at the different rosters Billy has had in his 3 years its really hard to start over every year. He has never had any consistency with rosters due to things not in his control.

Billy knows he is graded on playoffs not the reg season. He takes some losses in reg season due to needing to get some players key minutes in key moments. Yet those moments are valuable in playoffs. I really do believe he treats reg season as a time to learn and experiment.

We shall soon see. We need PG to start playing better. Melo needs fo shoot better. Felton is the best FA signing we ever made. Brewer is a spark of energy too. And Adams is really getting better every day.

With GS injuries possibly carrying over to playoffs if we can perform at high level we can go far.

Tough loss tonight. It was the last chance OKC had at getting the 3 seed. I had OKC as the 4th seed to start the season, so it's not way too big of a deal to me. The team actually played pretty well and kept it close considering pretty much all of its stars played terribly (even though PG has been bad since the All-Star break)

The problem is that Jerami Grant is better than Carmelo Anthony. Yet, Melo won't come off the bench and costs like 3x as much. Grant should have been in to end the game, yet Melo had to end the game because he's still considered part of the Big 3 for some reason. I can't really even get angry at Donovan for not switching them out because I assume Melo would throw a fit if he didn't play at the end.

It's too bad, it puts the team in a really weird spot. I genuinely would rather sign Grant than Melo next season. But Melo will most likely opt-in and we won't be able to sign Grant. :/

I thought OKC would compete with Houston for the 2-seed. No one knew Houston would be as good as they are... but by almost all measures, OKC has underachieved this season. For example, is there any reason for Portland to be better than OKC? I don't think they're more talented. I saw few preseason predictions that had OKC winning the same number of games as last season, which is what we're headed for. So, by most measures, OKC has underachived.

Donovan had a great postseason in 2015-2016. He deserves credit. Donovan had a terrible postseason last season. He could never figure out lineups and he deserves blame. Continuing to play Semaj last season is indefensible. Oladipo should have taken over that role. That's my biggest beef with Donovan that he sometimes struggles identifying effective lineups in my opinion. He stubbornly sticks with players and lineups when data shows they don't work. Donovan continues to play Ferguson over Huestis (and Abrines) even though every indicator suggests it hurts the team. On the whole, I think Donovan is an average NBA coach, which is fine. You don't go and fire him for slightly underachieving unless you've got someone clearly better (i.e., Pop, Carlisle, Stevens, maybe Kerr). But if this team is out in the first round then that's a real disappointment that can only be overcome if Donovan is part of the reason PG signs with OKC. Having said all that, this season isn't over so we'll see if OKC can get a decent seed and turn it up in the playoffs.

Melo has to hit threes to have any value. He's bad at defense and it's a disaster when he takes twos. The hope has always been the Melo is more suited for the playoffs. But, for whatever reason (e.g., role, age), Melo's game has fallen off a cliff this season.

.

Oklahoma City Thunder 105 - Portland Trailblazers 108

Box score: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975846

Free throws: Paul George 8-8, Jeremy Grant 7-8 OKC team free throws: 23 - 28/ 82.1%
Rebounds: Portland 49 OKC 39 +10 Trailblazers win series: 4-0


@Portland 103-99
OKC 117-106
@Portland 108-100
OKC 108-105

Yep. Terrible night for Melo, specifically.

This was coaching malpractice tonight.

Gotta get Billy out of here.

And bring in JVG or I think Chauncey Billups will make a heck of a coach, maybe the next Kerr.

But Billy has to go.

Yep. Terrible night for Melo, specifically.

33 minutes, 6 points. Gimme back Kanter and Dougie.

Yep. Terrible night for Melo, specifically.

He missed several CRITICAL shots this last week. He has GOT to be better.

He missed several CRITICAL shots this last week. He has GOT to be better.

Let's hope so. Anthony use to be clutch against the Thunder when he was with the Nuggets; hope he gets his mojo back.

Put this loss behind us; move on:


Thu, Mar 29 @San Antonio 7:00 PM
Fri, Mar 30 vs Denver 7:00 PM ... Last back-to-back this season.

Sun, Apr 1 @New Orleans 5:00 PM

Tue, Apr 3 vs Golden State 7:00 PM

Sat, Apr 7 @Houston 7:30 PM

Mon, Apr 9 @Miami 6:30 PM

Wed, Apr 11 vs Memphis 7:00 PM

Why is Grant not getting Melo's crunch minutes? Grant was on fire and getting to the FT line, and Melo was building brick houses. Is Donovan scared to bench Melo???

Well since it looks like we are going to lose several more games in the next couple weeks. I guess there is silver lining to get the 7th seed and battle the snake without Curry.

I know everyone thinks it’s obvious to bench Melo for Grant, but there are serious chemistry risks too. Melo is a lockerroom leader who has probably never been benched in his life. When you’re a superstar for over a decade, it’s not easy to shift mentally to a lesser role. Grant should get those minutes, but egos are part of the game. That’s part of the equation. And I’m not saying Donovan should keep Melo no matter what. Im just saying it’s complicated.

Also, I had no problem with the shots Melo took. Those threes are what we want him to take. It just looks bad when none of them go in.

Agree 100%. These simplistic “bench Melo” or “fire Donovan” statements bug me to no end. Fire Donovan and what..? Interim coach? You’re calling the season over? They’re fourth place in the West. They have the seventh best record in the league. 23 teams would gladly trade places with them. Golden State is in trouble. The Thunder is actually BETTER positioned right now than I expected.

I have yet to hear a Donovan hater or Melo hater articulate what they expected this year that’s significantly better than what we have right now. That’s because they know how dumb it would sound if they said “championship.” Literally NOBODY thought that was happening this year, and yet, it is STILL in front of them, if you’re a dreamer.

Melo and PG have both had frustrating seasons. Also, both have accepted dramatically different roles. Especially Melo. I hear people dogging him saying stuff like “same old Melo” and it makes me wonder if they’ve ever seen him play before. Whether it meshes or not, props to the dude for working to mesh. And yes, while I agree that I’d like to see more minutes for Grant, Dan is right about the chemistry part, and I think this team loves Melo, a la Perk.

And did Grant have a hotter hand last night? Yes. But you don’t bench a hall of fame player for minute-to-minute game feel. Hindsight is 20/20. If you give me the choice again right now of who I want to take an open three pointer game winning (or tying) shot for the Thunder, I’m STILL getting the ball to Carmelo over Grant, shooting slump be damned. If he hits that shot he’s a hero, the Thunder is sliding into third seed, and this discussion isn’t eleven happening.

Besides, last night’s loss wasn’t about Melo’s missed shots. It was rebounding. Or lack thereof.

Well this week has pretty much gone perfectly for OKC in terms of standings. Everyone behind us has blown it just like we did against POR and BOS. We have miraculously maintained 4th while sitting idle.

I think we have two scheduled losses remaining (pelicans and rockets). If we just win the others, I think we are a lock for 4th. Or if we beat the Pels and lose a different game, we are still good.
The only scenario I see us getting jumped is if the Jazz either win out or lose 1, and we lose more than those 2.

Aldridge got hurt last night and the Pels have a harder schedule than us and still have to play us.
GSW is riddled with injuries and probably still will be by Tuesday.

"Welcome to Los Angeles, Paul."

Welcome to Los Angeles, Paul.

Huh?

Huh?

Just ignore it.... You'll be better off.

It'd be funny if that happened. Kuzma is having a great rookie year and has more upside.

Although the ultimate for me would still be having the Ball family assemble in LA and the Lakers continuing to do poorly.

We suck!!

Would have been nice to have Melo get a look in OT.

We suck!!

Pretty much☹

Pretty much☹

It appears that it might be time to tear it down and rebuild. This team just doesn't have IT.

The Thunder are losing a lot of close games. While it’s hard to watch, it bodes a lot better for their actual abilities then if they were getting blown out. This is really the same team we’ve had all year and still doesn’t mean we couldn’t win a first round series.

The Thunder are losing a lot of close games. While it’s hard to watch, it bodes a lot better for their actual abilities then if they were getting blown out. This is really the same team we’ve had all year and still doesn’t mean we couldn’t win a first round series.

Appreciate that optimism, but three stars like PG, RW, and Melo shouldn't be losing at home to Denver in a critical playoff-relevant game.

Appreciate that optimism, but three stars like PG, RW, and Melo shouldn't be losing at home to Denver in a critical playoff-relevant game.

Sure, I agree, but giving up on the team for losing by 1 to a good team doesn’t make sense. This loss wasn’t in the top 10 worse losses this season. It’s not good, but this game to game shifting of opinions from we’re-great to we’re-awful doesn’t make sense. This game didn’t change my opinion of this team. We’re likely a mid-seed that can win in the first round.

How many games this year have turned into losses almost entirely based on this team's inability to shoot free throws?