Thunder slip in crunchtime as Raptors claw back, 103-98

Well…

The Raptors came in unbeaten and remain just that. After seeming to have control of the game for most of the way, OKC went dry the last 5:13… literally no field goals. With a little over two minutes left the Thunder were up 6 and they were poised to put this game away. They were outscored by the Raps 12-1. The Thunder closed with Westbrook, Waiters, Durant, Roberson and Ibaka, after a late game sub of Roberson for Kanter.

There were limited passes and inconsistent defense and rebounding during that stretch. The Thunder were up 2 late in the game, but 2 free throws from Valanciunas and a close bank shot from Derozen quickly put the Raptors up 2. A jump ball between Valanciunas and Ibaka with OKC down 3 in the closing minute of the game gave us as slight hope of some typical Thunder madness.  That dream was quickly killed with DeRozen recovering the tip. The Raptors capitalized on the Thunder missing on some failed late game heroism from Russell Westbrook.

To be fair to Russ missed some shots at the rim he normally makes and carried the team most of the way. He had 16 assists (one shy of his career high of 17) and handled a bulk of the scoring load in the 2nd half. Durant scored 27 points on an efficient 10-18 from the field, but lacked an aggression you would expect. He still seems to be feeling his way through games while Russ gripping them with all his might.

Ball movement and making the extra pass were preached in the preseason, but were gone come the fourth quarter for OKC yet again. Late game execution has been very Scott Brooksian so far in the Billy Donovan era. When you have 2 of the best 1-on-1 players in the league this is bound to happen, but you still hope for more than what we saw tonight.

Donovan agrees.

“You’ve gotta pass the basketball. I don’t think with the players you have on our team you can’t shoot out of a double team,” he said.

The 19 turnovers were better than the 24 committed in the game against Houston, but the sloppy play has been a trend since game one. Donovan is preaching a better brand of basketball and talks about being more “fluid” in his post game, but we’ve only seen it in spots so far. The first quarter looked promising, but the rest of the game was full of the same problems that have plagued the Thunder in the infancy of this season.

So far OKC has been a bottom 10 defense with a completely healthy team. It’s early, but this team needs to make the correct adjustments, and they have the personnel to do so. We saw a good effort in the first quarter, but it did not sustain. Thunder had 29 fouls to the Raps 16. The Raptors didn’t do a great job of shot making down the stretch, but made plays and went to the free throw line.

Donovan admits, “When they played small, thats when the fouling started.” Free throws were essentially what won the game for Toronto. DeRozen was really aggressive attacking the rim. He went to the line more times than the whole Thunder team. They were 32-39 while OKC was 12-14. That’s a huge discrepancy, especially when you are playing against a team with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

Are there concerns so far with the Thunder? …Yes

Should you be freaking out? …Please don’t. It’s only November. Remember last November? REMEMBER ISH SMITH? REMEMBER LANCE THOMAS? SEBASTIAN TELFAIR PLAYED FOR THE THUNDER!!!!!

A couple quotes from Durant on the late game execution:

“It’s something we’ve got to figure out. Something we’ve got to figure out. I like that we’re not as predictable, but we’ve still got to stick to what makes us the money, you know what I’m saying? But that’s on me to be more aggressive to demand the ball in huddles, but also to look for my teammates as well. We’re still learning, we’re still learning this offense, but that can’t be an excuse.  We’ve got to figure it out at some point”

“I don’t think it stagnated. We just missed shots. We were getting downhill, getting to the pain and we just missed shots. Dion missed a nice, wide open 3, I missed a turnaround on the baseline, Russell missed a few layups getting to the rim. I mean, we make those shots and you say it’s great offense. It’s a make or miss league and we missed ’em and they made ’em.”

• Dion Waiters had a few nice moments tonight including some great defense on DeRozan, and a wide open… step back… deep two…. swish

• No one off the bench posted a positive +/- tonight

• When asked about aggression this was Billy D’s response “We’ve gotta get to the free throw line more, we’ve got to get Enes to post up more” Hmmmmmm

• After a deep 3 from Russ in the 4th Brain Davis shouted “FROM CANADIAN COUNTY” which I thought was weird

• Anthony Morrow played nearly 6 minutes at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Most Thunder fans have been calling for him to play more. He missed all three of his shots, all of which seemed forced.

• Kyle Singler played 8 seconds less than Morrow did, but it felt like he played an eternity more. #FREEMORROW

• During Singler’s 5 minutes he had 3 fouls, a turnover, and a 2003 emo haircut

• Kanter had a nice game going 7-11 from the field including a big time 3 to close the 3rd quarter.

• Rex Kalamian was back in town and still so bald.

• Roberson was 1-3 from beyond the arc. On the one he made he did the “holster pistols” move while no one was near him at all.

• Going into tonight Durant and Ibaka had the same number of assists. Durant passes him with his 4 to Ibaka’s 0. #smallsamplesizes

• D.J. Augustin has slowed down his production since the 2nd half of the Rockets game. He finished with 0 points on 0 shots, 3 assists and 4 turnovers.

• D.J. may have put it best with “Too many turnovers” and “They just played harder than us”

The Thunder play tomorrow night in Chicago… buckle up.