Well That Was Ugly

By Randy Renner, Senior Writer

Playing their third game in four nights and on the second night of a back-to-back you figured the Oklahoma City Thunder, even playing at home, might not be as sharp as anyone would like.

Well, there’s not sharp and then there’s what the Thunder were last night against the Chicago Bulls…embarrassing.

And it’s not like the Bulls have been on a roll lately with all the personal bickering that’s been going inside their lockerroom.

Some of the Thunder’s poor play last night and for the last three games can be blamed on the absence of backup center Enes Kanter but it would seem too many things are going wrong for that to be the key reason.

Russell Westbrook tried several times to give his team a spark, telling reporters after the game “you can’t just quit.”

But it certainly seemed like the Thunder may have done just that as the Bulls stretched their lead all the way out to 31 points before winning 128-100.

“They just played harder than we did,” was how Westbrook put it.

And not even he knows, or is willing to say, what might be wrong.

“I’m not sure, I’m not sure man. We just gotta know how important games are, especially being a young team and embrace games like this especially once you beat a team earlier in the season you gotta know they’re gonna come in ready to play and they outplayed us.”

The Thunder were outplayed at both ends of the floor making just 38 percent of their own shots while the Bulls shot a blistering 60.5 percent.

“I didn’t think we were very good tonight, in particular on the defensive end of the floor,” admitted head coach Billy Donovan. “Obviously the last couple of games, we have had difficulty collectively as a group scoring, but I think even in Cleveland and San Antonio, we really tried to grind and defend.”

The Thunder couldn’t do that last night and the shooting problems are becoming extreme.

Westbrook managed to score 28 points on 10-for-23 shooting from there the dropoff looked like a cliff with Victor Oladipo going 5-for-14, Anthony Morrow 3-for-11 (1-for-6 on threes), Cameron Payne 3-for-10 and Domas Sabonis 1-for-10.

The Thunder were out-rebounded, out-scored in the paint and in transition, all three areas where in past games OKC has dominated.

So, Donovan was asked, is this one of those ‘burn the tape’ type games? Forget about it and go on?

“I hope our guys don’t do that. I think that would be the worst thing in the world to do. I have never been a big believer in that. I think you got to take what happened tonight and really reflect on why and what we can do to get better all of us: coaches and players. We all have a hand in it and need to figure out ways. In my opinion, it would be a mistake to say, ‘hey, it’s one of those nights. It’s back to back. It’s tough.”

And it’s not about to get easier. Memphis will be here Friday night then Portland on Sunday and a trip to Indiana right after for a back-to-back and then guess who comes to OKC? Cleveland and Golden State.

If the Thunder can’t figure something out pronto that upcoming group wouldn’t seem to offer up many opportunities for wins.