Thunder flop in crunchtime against the Pelicans, 101-99

BOX SCORE

With 5:33 remaining Reggie Jackson found Steven Adams in a slick pick-and-roll slip for a layup, to put the Thunder up 97-91 over the Pelicans on Sunday. The Thunder had been spotty on the defensive end all night, but were executing in the half court, finding enough good shots to keep the Pelicans at arm’s length.

New Orleans responded with an 8-0 run to go up two with 3:58 left, and that’s when Russell Westbrook reached his breaking point.

Over the final 3:45 of the game, Westbrook took every shot for the Thunder (except for a failed Serge Ibaka tip-in at the buzzer), going 0 of 6 with a turnover, as Oklahoma City dropped an ugly game at home to New Orleans, 101-99. Bad offense, bad defense, bad loss.

“Offensively we had good moments and then we had some tough moments down the stretch,” Scott Brooks said. “A couple of tough possessions, but throughout the game, it was a defensive struggle for us.”

With 10 seconds left, the Thunder had a final look to either force overtime or win. As everyone in the world knew, Westbrook was going to go for the latter. The play appeared to be built for a drive with kick options, but after Jrue Holiday shut down Westbrook’s initial drive, he backed out to the 3-point line and fired.

“Once I tried to attack [Jrue Holiday] stopped me, so I got the ball back and I went for the win,” Westbrook said. “Just missed.”

Said Tyreke Evans of OKC’s final play: “We knew he wasn’t going to give the ball up. We knew he was going to go. We knew he was going to get the ball and they were going to go to him every time.”

As tends to happen, with the Thunder failing in crunchtime as Westbrook used up damn near every possession, the focus is on OKC’s mercurial point guard. I don’t know if this is true because I haven’t seen tape of the game, but some were saying he didn’t have a single pass the final five minutes. I find that somewhat unbelievable and yet believable at the same time. Asked about it, you can guess how Westbrook took it.

“It’s one game, man. I’m not going to keep answering questions about me not passing when we lose,” Westbrook said. “When we won eight in a row, nobody said nothing about me not passing. So I don’t want to hear it now.”

The finger is often pointed at Westbrook, and there’s no question he didn’t make smart choices in the closing minutes tonight. But in this case, you can’t say, “Why didn’t he give it to Durant?!?” because there was no Durant. You also can’t say that he took all bad shots, because he was actually attacking the rim and had a couple of good chances, but was either blocked or didn’t get a call. He was definitely overzealous in trying to shoulder the load, but he also wasn’t entirely out of line either.

Whoever you want to blame — Westbrook, the shoddy defense, Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins, Scott Brooks, Anthony Davis for being damn good — the fact is, the Thunder lost a game they shouldn’t have. With a tough week and a half ahead, this was one they needed. They could’ve been at .500 headed into Tuesday’s game against the Blazers, and still nipping on the heels of eighth in the West.

Instead, they lost in a way we’ve seen before, losing control of a game they otherwise had. They made critical errors in critical moments, and didn’t find good looks when they needed them. Same story, same result.

More on Westbrook’s game for ESPN.com here.

NOTES:

• Scott Brooks actually had a really solid plan set up for the final play. He brought Morrow on, which meant the Pelicans had to sub Asik off, leaving Davis as the only rim protector. Since he was guarding Ibaka, it meant Westbrook could have a pass to attack the rim. Problem with the play was, Holiday played great defense and blew up Westbrook’s dribble, causing him to back out and take that 3. And that’s when it all went to hell.

• One thing to note: When Manu Ginonili fired those two hero 3s in the overtimes against the Grizzlies and Blazers, was everyone saying how Pop is dumb and can’t draw up plays? Or that Ginobili is a cancer that kills his team in crunchtime? Didn’t think so.

• That doesn’t excuse the fact it was a bad shot by Westbrook. But then again, that drops, and he’s the hero and everyone says yay Russ. Such is basketball.

• Westbrook: “My job is to stay in attack mode and try and score and try to make plays happen. If I miss, then I miss. I’m going to live and die by that every night, regardless of what happens.”

• Asked if his teammates weren’t getting open: “”Nah, nah, nah. I’m not going blame my teammates for anything, man.”

• Westbrook has played so damn well since coming back from injury that it’s a shame that here we are with this conversation again. He even played really well tonight before losing it the final few minutes. It’s like a recovering alcoholic going 45 days without a drink and then falling off the wagon at a Christmas party with too many glasses of wine.

• Brooks on Westbrook: “He’s improved late game execution over the years and he’s going to continue to improve. He had some tough moments. But he had the ability to get into the lane tonight, and he was getting to the free throw line. He had a couple of plays that could’ve gone either way and he had a couple of plays that he could’ve made those shots, that he’s made all year long. He’s been shooting the ball really well.

• Kevin Durant wasn’t on the bench tonight because he was icing his ankle on and off throughout the game. He was sitting near the tunnel.

• No protective cover for Westbrook on his right hand tonight. “Different, different,” he said of it. “It was actually weird, but I’ll get used to it getting back to my normal thing.”

• No question about it: Anthony Davis worked Serge Ibaka over tonight in every way. It was a mauling. Davis 38 points and 12 rebounds. Ibaka six points and eight rebounds.

• The Thunder kept putting two on the ball in the pick-and-roll, and the low help defender was late rotating over a lot. And it didn’t help that Ibaka was lost. Davis would just show, then dive to the bucket and bam, easy look. It was awful defense both by Ibaka, and the other four guys on the floor.

• I will say this too: It seems like for as active as he can be, Ibaka sometimes doesn’t seem to understand how to play hard. Like he revs his motor at times, but then sometimes he’s stuck in idle just kind of coasting around. He doesn’t attack the glass for rebounds on either end. He lets loose balls bounce in front of him. He doesn’t run the floor in transition. He plays hard and not hard at the same time. It’s a weird thing.

• Here’s how you can always tell when Westbrook is mad or he didn’t play well: Thunder PR is lightning quick with their cutoff of questioning. We waited for close to an hour postgame as Westbrook piddled around at his locker, taking forever to lotion his hands, then tie up his laundry, then adjust his hat, then adjust his hat again, then re-button his top button on his shirt, then close his locker doors in the slowest way possible, and then after the questions started getting a bit more pressing and Westbrook got bristly — two minutes in, mind you — we got the “Last question for Russ” move.

• Luke Babbitt goes to the barber and says, “Yeah, give me the Ken Burns please.”

• You know how people are always talking about how OKC needs a low post game, specifically someone like Steven Adams needs one? You know what he really needs? A nice 15-footer.

• I guess technically, Westbrook beat Anthony Davis on a jump ball, even though Davis got it and Andre Roberson just happened to be in the right spot.

• The Thunder bench was damaging tonight. The starters were all pluses. Bench, outside of Morrow, were all minuses.

• Jackson had a decent game, though: 19 points on 7-13, six boards and five assists.

• Steven Adams with his third double-double of the season — 12 points and 10 rebounds. Total double-doubles Perk has had since joining the Thunder: two.

• The Pelicans have attack-minded penetraters, and the Thunder don’t defend those kinds of players very well. The Thunder just didn’t stop the ball.

• Evans has a way of roasting Roberson, and a lot of it is pretty straightforward. Roberson’s best defensive attributes are his length and motor. But Evans has such a great first step and a terrific handle, that Roberson can’t move quick enough laterally to keep him in front. Roberson is awesome against players that rely on jumpers. But a dribble drive guy like Evans, he just couldn’t consistently stay with him. That doesn’t mean Roberson isn’t a great defender all of a sudden; it’s just that he needs some work. Brooks even said pregame that they aren’t quite comfortable putting Roberson on point guards yet — like Thabo — and that’s illustrated in this Evans matchup, who plays a lot like an offensive-minded point guard.

• I’m going to probably write more on this later, but this “Ibaka needs to stop shooting 3s!” stuff is getting really dumb.

• Nick Collison has missed his last 13 3-pointers. Hasn’t made one since Nov. 19. Gonna be hard to catch Ray Allen doing that.

• Best moment of the game: Thunder are making a nice third quarter run, as Westbrook penetrates and kicks to an open shooter in the corner. The crowd stands in unison yelling “THREEEEE!” Everyone realizes the shooter is Andre Roberson. The “THREEEE!” fades quickly as Roberson airballs three feet wide right.

• Pregame, the away goal had some kind of problem and they had to lower it down to work on it. I was disappointed that Jimmer didn’t take it as an opportunity to show off a mean 360 or something.

• Watched Kevin Durant walk out of the arena. Barely any limp at all.

Next up: Home against the Blazers on Tuesday