Grizzlies drop the Thunder to 1-5, 91-89

BOX SCORE

One, two, three, four… five.

Five seconds. And now, five losses.

The Thunder’s theme so far this season has been competing admirably through extreme adversity, and yet losing. No game encapsulated that better than Friday’s 91-89 loss to the undefeated Grizzlies, an excruciating one to let slip away. Forget the five-second inbound call on Nick Collison with 5.9 seconds left and the Thunder down one. Forget Serge Ibaka’s game-winning 3 attempt that missed wide left as the buzzer sounded. Forget the 16-point second half comeback, forget Jeremy Lamb’s solid debut, forget Reggie Jackson’s excellent performance, forget the effort, the intensity, the energy. Forget it all.

The Thunder lost. The Thunder are 1-5. One win, five losses.

“I think we want to see big picture and realize there’s a lot of season left and we’re going to get guys back and we’re going to be a better team,” Collison said. “But we also gotta get some wins.”

The Thunder had an incredible chance to stun Memphis. It’s not just that they improbably kept the game close with the depleted roster, it’s that they nearly overcame their own stupidity as well. They missed eight of 11 free throws, which included five consecutive in the fourth quarter. They turned the ball over 20 times. They had a number of critical defensive lapses that opened the door for apparent Grizzly daggers. And yet, they had a shot to win the game. All good things, all positive things, all moralistic victory-ish things.

Doesn’t change the fact they’re 1-5, though.

“We’re not happy with it,” Scott Brooks said. “We’re not going to lay down and feel sorry for ourselves. That’s not us. That’s not our organization. That’s not our players. That’s not me. We’re going to keep competing. We know we’re going through some adversity right now but we’re going to stay together.

“I know we’re 1-5,” he said. “That’s not what we wanted, that’s not what we envisioned going into this season. But we’re not waiting for guys to come back either.”

Probably depending on the kind of fan you are, you can look at the Thunder’s current situation one of two ways: 1) The glass half full way or 2) the glass half empty and spilling more way. On one hand, the Thunder have dropped five games against five very good teams, in a span of 10 days which has covered something like 10,000 miles. They’ve lost to the Blazers, Clippers, Nets and Raptors all on the road, and by two to Memphis at home. That’s a bear of a beginning to the season even with a full roster.

On the other hand, they’re now a full five games behind the West’s top two teams (Houston and Memphis) and while competitive, they don’t have any guarantees of beating some of the so-called lesser teams as the schedule softens. All it means is the importance of those games greatly increases. You can paint a rosy picture that young players are getting invaluable experience and that by the time Westbrook and Durant are healthy, they’ll return to a better, deeper team, but you also can’t overlook they also might be returning to a hole too deep to get out of.

Me? I’m on the tepidly encouraged side of things. The Grizzlies are a really good team. And the Thunder had a chance to beat them with nine players, one of which that was making his season debut and another that joined the team some six hours before tipoff. If you look at this game as a tragic missed opportunity to get a needed win, I’m with you on that. But at the same time, the performance might be equally as important as the product. The Thunder are most definitely in the outcome business and 1-5 isn’t good enough ever, but this is a lot to ask of a wounded team and the fact these five losses haven’t all come by 20 or more, is something extremely positive.

Still. With each loss, that anxiety is going to increase. How far can the Thunder fall before Durant and Westbrook can lift them back up? Are they actually in danger? Who really knows at this point, but all you can say is that it’s starting to get a little scary. While at the same time being pretty good. It’s a weird time right now for the Thunder.

NOTES:

• Collison on the five-second call: “I thought I got it off in time. It was close. I probably should’ve called timeout but I thought I could get it off … The hard part is the plays sometimes take longer to develop. Coach will draw up maybe three options in five seconds and if the guys are getting bumped off the screens it takes longer for a play to develop. The real question is whether you’re going to call timeout or not if you’ve got one and that’s where I probably made a mistake. I should’ve called timeout. I knew it was getting close, but I thought I could get it off.”

• Brooks said the plan was to go for the win with Ibaka’s shot. It was a good play, and a pretty good look. Absolutely the right choice to do. Knock it down, you win. Two points forced overtime, but does it against a better team with a full roster. The Thunder weren’t about to survive overtime.

• Both the three free throws and the 11 attempts are the fewest in the OKC era for the Thunder. Three makes. That’s so bad.

• Collison: “What we can’t do is have periods where our intensity isn’t as high. We have to play extremely hard to win with the group we’ve got. We can’t have those bad stretches. We’re going to have stretches where it’s hard to play well and to score, but our effort has to be really high the whole game. So that’s what we really have to focus on and control, because that’s what we can control. For us to have a chance, we have to play with extreme effort and we’ve got to be better.”

• The last two seasons, the Thunder’s fifth loss has come on Dec. 22 and Dec. 20. A full month and a half ahead of schedule.

• The Thunder’s cruncthime lineup: Jackson, Lamb, Collison, Ibaka and Adams. That’s right, Collison, Ibaka and Adams. What else do you do?

• Brooks stuck with a zone for most of the fourth quarter, which was largely effective, but also opened the door for those dagger 3s by Mike Conley. It’s a tricky thing, because you want to dare Memphis to beat you on the perimeter, but you also don’t want to give up good looks. The Grizzlies don’t often beat you from outside, and Brooks was willing to take that chance.

• One thing that hurt: Half the time, Lamb had no idea what he was doing in the zone. He’s really bad at being aware of what’s happening around him and all Marc Gasol had to do was set a little flare screen and it gave someone an open look over Lamb.

• Dave Joerger totally called this pregame: “We’re not going to, hopefully, ever get blown out, or blow somebody out. We just don’t play that way. Executing in the last five minutes is paramount for us both offensively and defensively.”

• Lamb was really solid in his debut: 17 points on 8 of 15 shooting. He hit just 1 of 6 from 3, the one being a big one with four minutes left. He forced some ugly ones, though.

• Jackson was splendid, scoring 22 on 9-20 with seven rebounds and eight assists.

• Jackson: “Doing this interview right now, it’s awkward. I don’t go into any game thinking we’re going to lose. I don’t think there’s any team out there better than us. I don’t care how many people we have, any time we go into battle you’ve got to have each others back and think you’re going to win. I thought we’d be on the other side of this one tonight.”

• Adams with his second career double-double: 13 points, 11 rebounds.

• Serge Ibaka set a new career-high with four made 3s. That’s now seven in his last two games. He hit 23 all of last season.

• Tough break for the Thunder when Steven Adams showed off some great hustle to save an airballed Lamb 3. Problem was, it backfired as Memphis got a 5-on-4 and Courtney Lee nailed an open 3.

• Ish Smith debuted and played four minutes. Not much to take away, really. He clearly didn’t know where to go on about half the possessions he was in.

• Brooks didn’t use Perk much at all on Randolph, which was kind of strange. Just 14 minutes for Perk, who did break his scoreless streak of 43 minutes with a putback in the third quarter.

• Jackson was kind of weird in the locker room postgame. He was ready to talk but Sebastian Telfair was still speaking with some reporters. Jackson saw it and said he’d hold on because “he didn’t want to steal his teammate’s shine.” Then after he finished talking, he lingered in his chair for a long time talking off the record with some media, then he got up and tapped Collison and gave him some encouragement. Jackson is obviously trying to take on a more active leadership role, but it seemed a little, I don’t know, forced.

• I’m pretty convinced officials guess half the time on pump-and-drive travel calls.

• Brooks deserves some credit for how he’s managing minutes. It’s tough to do, but Ibaka played just 33 tonight. Adams played 34. Lamb got 41 in his debut which is a lot, and Jackson had now played at least 40 in all three of his appearances, but he’s doing a solid job of balancing playing time for his best guys and getting them at least some rest.

• One of the saddest/sweetest things is watching Durant and Jackson in the pregame handshake line. All last season, their handshake was Jackson straightening up KD’s jersey and like acting like he was dusting it off. Tonight, KD was doing it to Jackson’s jersey. D’aww and sad face at the same time.

• The Thunder’s intro video is awesome this season as it prominently features all the players you were excited to come and see that aren’t playing.

• So things we’re supposed to get easier, except the Kings are 5-1. Eek.

• Decent chance Perry Jones and Andre Roberson could be ready for that one, though. As well as Anthony Morrow who was on the floor shooting without a brace pregame.

Next up: Home against the Kings on Sunday