The Leftovers: Five extra thoughts on Thunder-Cavs

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A couple morning-after leftover thoughts on that weird game last night:

1. Berry Tramel pointed this out, and it’s stunning: With two separate runs — on an 18-0 run that last 4:29 of the second quarter and an 21-2 run that last 5:40 in the second half — the Cavs outscored the Thunder 39-2 for more than 10 minutes of the game. Wow. The second quarter run was part of an infuriating stretch of basketball for the Thunder, one in which it appeared they were set up to take the game over entirely. Inexplicably, with the second unit on the floor for most of it, the Thunder stretched out to a 40-28 lead. Then Kevin Durant re-entered for Kyle Singler, so naturally the Thunder took a nosedive. After Durant checked back in, the Thunder were outscored 18-2. Eventually OKC clawed back to take a one-point halftime lead with a 7-0 run to close themselves, but the damage was already done. They had a chance to potentially put the game away there, and instead let the Cavs back in it.

2. Dion Waiters stunk last night. Here’s how bad he played: Billy Donovan, who has preferred Waiters in most closing lineups this season, effectively benched him… in favor of Kyle Singler. Waiters was 1-7 from the floor, which featured a hilarious airball, and missed consecutive 3s late in the third that could’ve opened up a nine-point lead to take to the fourth. Instead, the Thunder got mismatched and Richard Jefferson had an easy dunk to cut it to 78-74 heading to the final frame. A five-point swing in the final seconds.

3. On Singler: Ironic that the only stat he got in last night’s box score with was his not his first, but his first TWO assists of the season. That’s right, he’s coming for you, John Stockton. He played 17 minutes, basically only because Anthony Morrow was home due to a personal matter. Singler wasn’t glaringly bad per se, he just wasn’t, well, there. His defense was fine, but offensively he was not much more than an onlooker. Sure, maybe you could say he created some space in the fourth for Durant and Westbrook to operate in, but you know damn well the Cavs knew Westbrook or Durant weren’t about to give it up to Singler for a big shot. Without Morrow, and with Waiters playing gross, Donovan’s option to close were…

• Singler

• D.J. Augustin, who would’ve been horribly mismatched on the other end and prevented the Thunder from switching 1-through-5 like they were.

• Cameron Payne, who really wouldn’t have been a bad choice in my mind, but sure, I can understand the hesitation in throwing a rookie into that cauldron.

• Andre Roberson, who yeah, helps you defensively, but if you think the Cavs didn’t care about Singler, they weren’t going to even notice Roberson. The plus of Roberson, though, is he at least is an offensive rebounding threat. Then again, the Thunder were trying to make up a 10-point deficit, and needed offense.

• Nick Collison, who really wouldn’t have been a terrible choice either, except for him not making sense positionally (he would’ve been playing small forward). I think he could guard Richard Jefferson, though.

• My preferred choice: Steve Novak. Hey! Yeah! He’s on the team, isn’t he? A lot of people were saying “Boy, sure would be nice to have Morrow down 3 in these final 20 seconds,” and guess what, they sort of still did, in essence. Again, Novak might’ve been caught in bad switches defensively, but at the very least in those last two possessions, why not have a marksman on the floor?

4. The second unit to start the fourth effectively lost this game. You can’t blame Donovan for the way he went about it, though. They had played well in the first half, extending a lead that Durant and Westbrook blew. And after it was clear things were slipping, Donovan even called timeout to get Westbrook back in with 10:12 to go. By that time, the Thunder were already down five, the all-bench group a -9 in just over 90 seconds.

After the game, the always diplomatic Durant even hinted at the frustration of it.

“We always end up being up 10 points and then we end up starting the fourth, we don’t start out so well and dig ourselves a hole we’ve got to fight back in the fourth,” he said. “That happened a few times, so we’ve just got to be better and start quarters better. We’ll be fine.”

There’s a lot to understand there. Bottom line: Those three or four minutes to start the fourth have been really killing the Thunder lately, and were direct issues in their last three losses. The bench ain’t good enough.

5. This sounds pretty good when you say it this way: The Thunder have won 10 of their last 13 still, and the three losses are all on the road to top four Eastern teams by a combined 10 points. It doesn’t sound as good when you look at the way they lost those games, with the attention to important details slipping in critical spots. It’s the same sort of boxes that often are checked when the Thunder lose: bad perimeter defense, predictable halfcourt execution, mental breakdowns, defensive rebounding, personnel limitations.

And here’s what’s irritating: Win this game, and that’s seven straight with seven winnable games ahead — Lakers, at the Clippers, at the Lakers, Bulls, Nuggets, Bucks, and Suns before heading to face the Hornets. Allow me to coulda, woulda, shoulda here: That would be 14 straight and had they closed out in Miami and Atlanta, that’s 20 straight. I know. I just wanted to know what it felt like to be a Warriors writer for a second.

(Sidebar: I was going to say, “Man, how is it the Cavs can go out and sign Richard Jefferson for the minimum and he’s stepping up for 13 big points, but the Thunder gotta play Singler at $5 million per,” and then I remember how OKC signed Caron Butler and how annoyingly inconsistent he was. So not every vet deal works out.)

Again, this team is clearly improving and with Durant, they’re really good. But that’s not the question anymore: They have to be great. And they clearly have a ways to go before they get there… if they even can.