The Brow drops the Thunder at the buzzer, 116-113
If there’s any single game to aptly summarize the Thunder’s season to date, it happened on Friday night.
All it was missing was a debilitating injury, and really, the night is still young.
I don’t, I can’t, I just don’t even can’t even won’t.
All I remember is Russell Westbrook making three free throws, seeming to clinch overtime, before Anthony Davis caught a pass almost 30 feet from the basket, double-clutched as a flying arm of Kevin Durant swiped at the ball, as let it fly. Bottoms up, Thunder down. 116-113, stunned, shocked silence in Chesapeake Energy Arena.
This was one of those games where like 400 relevant things happened, but more than anything, three things stick out most:
- Anthony Davis is a serpent sent by Satan himself to oblierate the NBA
- Russell Westbrook seems to play well against the Pelicans, dropping a new career-high 48 points on 15-28 with nine rebounds, 11 assists and four steals. To recap: That’s 93 points on 33-59 shooting in his last two games, both against New Orleans.
- Kevin Durant returned, but wasn’t quite back, as he struggled down the stretch hitting just 2-11 in the fourth quarter and 9-26 overall. He looked exhausted and there seemed to be clear rust from his stop-and-start season. He wasn’t having that, though.
“I ain’t making no excuses,” he said. “I should’ve made those shots. Got good looks. Missed layups, wide open 3s. It ain’t because I was in and out of the lineup. I just missed.”
Coming off Wednesday’s massive performance it really seemed like the Thunder were piecing something together finally. When Durant finished an oop in the third to put them up 10, a fan behind me screamed out, “We’re back!!!” It looked that way, with Westbrook Westbrookin’ and the power of talent overwhelming the Pelicans.
Except a 12-point lead slipped to three in the third, and a seven-point one with two minutes left turned into a two-point deficit because of a 9-0 run by the Pelicans to finish the quarter. It extended out to a 14-0 run, flipping the game and putting the Thunder in comeback mode.
And you know what? They did it. Like the team we all know so well, Westbrook sparked a run, and the Thunder were back within one with three minutes left. They stumbled again, but Durant snapped out of it, knocking down two late critical 3s. It was the kind of good-bad-good-bad-good game the Thunder win all the time.
But it just never seemed to finally go their way. Durant missed a great look with the Thunder down one with nine seconds left, and after Tyreke Evans threw it away, Durant then missed a short runner with three seconds left. It. Just. Wouldn’t. Happen.
Like I said, this felt like a lot of this season. At every moment we all want to declare, “Okay, THIS is it. This is when they get going,” but the oncoming bad result trumps the optimism. I thought the Thunder played a good game. Had Durant not struggled in uncharacteristic fashion, had they gotten some calls, had they had a few more breaks, had they blah blah blah, they would’ve won the game. It’s a season of what-if mania, and each time we get set up and take the bait, something happens to send things back in a spiral.
It certainly feels like Davis’ shot could be the first of what could be many daggers in the Thunder’s season. They’re 25-25, and now don’t have the tiebreaker against the Pelicans. It’s not that a split was unacceptable in this two-game mini-series, but in the fashion it happened, it doesn’t feel like anything other than a massive missed opportunity.
We just continue to ride the wave. But even with the loss, it did seem like something at least changed. The Thunder had that edge, they had that look. They just didn’t win. Davis hit a wild shot and they lost a tight game. If they can pick themselves up again, one more time, they might finally be able to start putting things behind them. Until the next deflating loss happens, I guess.
NOTES:
- Westbrook was just outrageous. He was so good I had fans begging for him to take crunchtime shots, not Durant. Fans wanted that last possession to go to him. That’s saying something.
- Guess what: That Anthony Davis buzzer beater was the first 3 he’s hit this season. You can break down what happened there and point fingers at whoever, but it comes down to two simple things: 1) It was a great, great shot and 2) it was a lot lucky too.
- Tonight in Great Postgame Moments With Russell Westbrook: He was asked if he feels like this season is snakebit. “Little bit what?” Snakebit. “I don’t know what that means.”
- In the locker room after the game Durant was talking with shooting coach Adam Harrington and was motioning his shooting mechanics. He’s going to be up all night thinking about some of those misses.
- In Durant’s first game back from a sprained toe, he played a season-high 43 minutes.
- Davis had an incredible offensive game, but I thought the Thunder still did a nice job neutralizing him on the defensive end. The only time he had a real defensive impact was when he was in the game in Perk-Collison lineups. Outside of that, either with Serge Ibaka or a smallball Durant lineup, the Thunder spaced out the floor, drawing Davis away from the paint to protect the rim. And with Monty Williams countering with Ryan Anderson instead of Omer Asik, it allowed Westbrook to continue to attack the middle. Good game plan, executed pretty well again.
- The fourth quarter featured a lot of back and forth adjusting between both coaches. The Thunder tried to play small to pull Davis out of the paint again. It worked, immediately leading to a Reggie Jackson layup. Williams subbed in Dante Cunningham to guard Anthony Morrow and Davis shifted back to the 5. Brooks sent in Steven Adams to go with size to defend Davis, who was abusing OKC in pick-and-roll with dives at the rim because there was no weakside rim protector. Eric Gordon came back in, then Andre Roberson.
- Of note: The Thunder lost by three points. And the Pelicans truly were awarded five points by the officiating crew tonight. Two blown goaltending calls and that bizarre fourth quarter technical foul.
- The technical foul was the most confusing of all. After a little run by OKC, a whistle blew and it appeared Williams had called timeout. Thunder players walked out on the floor but ref Bennie Adams apparently hadn’t acknowledged the timeout yet and hit the Thunder with a technical foul. It was 98-98 when that happened. Davis hit a free throw and the Pelicans were spotted a point with 4:35 left.
- The two goaltends weren’t crazy egregious, because those happen. But it was comical on the second one, an Asik tip-in that was called as Ibaka did it. Bill Kennedy called it and then watched the big board replay and saw he missed it. Dropped his head in shame.
- You know why it’s easy to get frustrated with fans? Because of the dumb things that get said after a game like this. One was “bad substitution by Brooks. The Brow was alone.” Uh, what? Or, “Brooks could never draw up a play like that.” I don’t think the Thunder could’ve asked for the Pelicans to take a more horrible shot.
- First quarter, Andre Roberson put Eric Gordon in a cage and threw away the key. Great defensive effort on him all night. You can think Roberson is terrible. I get why. It’s hard to watch someone suffocate a player off the ball. But just do me a favor and don’t say things like “He’s a D-Leaguer” or “He’s the worst player in the NBA.” Is he horrible offensively? Pretty much, yeah. But the guy can defend.
- Roberson made his first home 3-pointer of the season. Now he’s 1-of-24 in Oklahoma City.
- Steven Adams actually got in a trash talk conversation with Anthony Davis. First time I’ve ever seen him react. He picked up a technical for it. What upset Adams? He was upset a the Pelicans’ tactic of stepping in front of him while he was running back on offense, and taking cheap charges.
- Boy, for as solid as Perk was Wednesday, he was equally poor tonight. Three critical turnovers, some bad defense and not much on the boards. Had Adams not been in foul trouble, I doubt he would’ve played anywhere near his 18 minutes.
- Dion Waiters returned to the bench and was a no-show. He hit his first shot — a step-back 18-foot fadeaway, naturally — but missed his next five. Two points on 1-6 shooting, zero assists, 17 minutes.
- Brooks really relied heavily on his starting five tonight. It wasn’t a playoff-like rotation, but similar. You could clearly see the importance they placed on this one.
- Jackson’s lack of hustle for a loose ball late in the third quarter nearly keeled over Scott Brooks. He just slapped his knees and yelled out “REGGGGIIIIIEEEEE!!!”
- Serge Ibaka was mostly ineffective. Davis can take away anything midrange because of his length, but it’s also the defensive scheme from the Pelicans that encourages Westbrook to attack. There’s just not a lot there for Ibaka. You can say, “Where was Serge!” but the reality is, he wasn’t afforded much opportunity to get involved.
- Durant was wearing a protective boot on his foot pregame and after, but I’m told it’s just for precautionary reasons to help reduce pressure on his toe.
- Anthony Davis is so awesome.
Next up: Sunday at home against the Clippers
