Thunder collapse in Utah, 98-81

Royce Young -

BOX SCORE

With 6:03 left in the second quarter, the Thunder were rolling. Up 39-22 on the Jazz, playing with impressive energy, executing quality offense, making shots, and looking like a team intent on washing the bad taste of two heartbreaking losses out of their mouths.

After the bucket to put the Thunder up 17 — a slick Steven Adams finish — the Thunder didn’t make another basket until Kendrick Perkins dropped in a little shotput with 16 seconds left in the half. The Thunder scored one point — ONE — during that span, coming on a technical foul by Quin Snyder, where he scared his team into playing better, and might’ve scared the Thunder too while he was at it.

The Thunder still led 40-28 after Snyder’s technical, and slogged into halftime with a lead, 42-40. But the implosion had already begun as the Jazz opened up the game with a 32-17 third quarter, exposing yet another anemic offensive performance.

The Thunder are in trouble. They’re now 3-9 and have lost seven of their last nine, with the most recent win looking more and more like an outlier, a hot shooting night in Boston. They can’t score points and all Scott Brooks’ defensive gadgetry is finally running its course. They’re too thin, too inept and too talentless. Yes, they’ve been competitive in all but two losses, but that line is starting to run its course. That’s something all bad teams say. If only we’d won those close games… You didn’t. That’s why you’re bad.

Is it time to panic? If you are, have a party with it. Sell all your Thunder title stock now and jump overboard. Bail out completely. But do keep in mind that this team is better than they played tonight and there will be nights where the shots do fall. That might mean they’re still 5-15 when Durant and Westbrook return, but there really is enough time for them to save the Thunder.  I certainly didn’t expect the hole to already be this deep, and it only looks like it’s getting deeper. But they can do it. Because they’re that good.

For now though, it’s only going to get darker before the dawn. It feels more like a solar eclipse is waiting to wipe out that sunrise, though. I’m marking it down: Nov. 18, 2014, the official breaking point for Thunder fans. The frustration is reaching a boiling point, as there doesn’t seem to be much improvement happening. Sure, the heart and effort and grit is nice, and can keep them in games, but they need to play better. It gets exhausting going in to each game feeling like it’s about to be 48 hopeless minutes, crossing your fingers you’ll be surprised by a good performance.

The good players the Thunder have aren’t doing anything. Serge Ibaka went 2-13 from the floor for six points, and missed probably eight really good looks. Reggie Jackson went 4-13 for 10 points, getting to the foul line only once as he either isolated for a jumper or drove the paint and kicked to a corner shooter incapable of making a 3. Jeremy Lamb scored 19 points! but, did it on 5-15 shooting, and only padded that tally in garbage time. Lance Thomas continues to shoot with the kind of accuracy I pee with in the middle of the night. Sebastian Telfair is terrible. Anthony Morrow can’t get looks and when he does, they’re not clean but of the very forced variety just because he knows he has to get something thrown at the basket every now and then. Realistically, three players played moderately well for the Thunder tonight — Adams, Nick Collison and Kendrick Perkins. Toss Ish Smith in there if you want, but he got four minutes in scrub time.

To me, this feels like the low-point. After the close calls against Detroit and Houston, it seemed like the Thunder were ready to put in a big-time performance, getting themselves on track and moving forward. And they did, for about 18 minutes. Then they proceeded to unravel slowly and painfully. No time to lick wounds as it’s on to Denver for another one in 24 hours. I think I’m afraid to watch it.

NOTES:

  • Reggie Jackson stunk, plain and simple. I don’t know what happened to the guy that gets into the paint and finishes over bigs, but this current guy seemed almost afraid to attack the rim. So many times he’s beating his many, leaving his feet, and kicking to a corner.
  • The Thunder have now shot under 40 percent in five games already this season. Last year, they did that only nine total times.
  • Jeremy Lamb made his first shot tonight, which is supposed to be a good sign. But then he missed nine of his next 10. His three road games: 9-38 shooting (23.6 percent). His four home games: 25-50 shooting (50.0 percent).
  • One thing that I ask myself constantly: Why can’t Lamb get that floater going? I remember at UConn, that was his go-to shot, a bread and butter move. He’d kind of lazily walk into the lane, do that half jumpstop thing and then lean into a floater. But in the NBA, he’s shooting something like 1.8 percent on them. Is it the length of the defenders? No confidence? Was he just lucky for two years in college?
  • Ish Smith is better than Sebastian Telfair. Scott Brooks needs to adjust the rotation.
  • Here’s my attempt to spin positive, and trust me, this was tough to come up with: Had Jackson made that game-winner against Detroit and the Thunder not allowed that offensive rebound to the Rockets, they’d be 5-7. This performance was some kind of infuriating, but I saw a lot of gripes that the Thunder are headed in the wrong direction. No, the results definitely aren’t there, but they’re potentially two plays away from not feeling this loss near as much. Phew, that was rough.
  • That sequence where Derrick Favors missed like 15 times in a row was pretty funny.
  • My favorite emotional overreaction tweet I got tonight: “Ibaka flat assed sucks this year. Traded wrong player.”
  • Ibaka needs to play better, no question. He missed a lot of shots he’s got a long history of making often. He’s not impacting the game as much defensively, and he’s not rebounding as well as he should. But he’s also a player that has never functioned so isolated as he is right now and it’s pretty clear he’s playing nightly outside his comfort zone.
  • Gordon Hayward’s hair is making a strong push for Most Improved.
  • It’s nights like these where the Thunder announcing team can really wear on you. Trying to act as if the Thunder were even remotely in the game down 13 with four minutes left was pretty insulting. And talking about positive things like the bench points and getting fourth quarter stops is just too much. They effing sucked tonight. Just say it.
  • The disadvantages of this being my job: I actually had to watch this whole thing. I would’ve really enjoyed turning it off after the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter like everyone else did.

Next up: At the Nuggets on Wednesday