12/12 | G26: Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Pelicans - 7PM CST

[Old Man Game]

Frustrating loss. I bet if we played that game 10 more times we win 8 of them. A whole lot had to go right for them to win that game.

[spearsy23]

I don't really feel that bad about it, the way they played it feels like they shouldn't have even been in the game but they managed to get a good look at a win.

[Osirus89]

It's crazy to think that if AD had just a good game (around the 30 pt range) and not a great game like he did, we could have won even in the face of the rough start. He delivered when it counted for them. In future matchups against the Pels, Grant can't be matched up against AD EVER. He got violated every single time and got into foul trouble. You have to put SA on him and live with the results.

Yeah, he will get to play the pick and pop game, but you can't get put into the bonus in the first 5 mins of every quarter.

Close game with Abrines and Patterson not being able to hit water in a boat. God Patterson sucks ass. At least Abrines made one three and plays ok defense.

[Dn4sty]

So with no Milsap, does OKC consider not playing 2Pat? Can they get away with going smaller and giving his minutes to Nader and/or Burton

[Old Man Game]

It's crazy to think that if AD had just a good game (around the 30 pt range) and not a great game like he did, we could have won even in the face of the rough start. He delivered when it counted for them. In future matchups against the Pels, Grant can't be matched up against AD EVER. He got violated every single time and got into foul trouble. You have to put SA on him and live with the results.

Yeah, he will get to play the pick and pop game, but you can't get put into the bonus in the first 5 mins of every quarter.

Close game with Abrines and Patterson not being able to hit water in a boat. God Patterson sucks ass. At least Abrines made one three and plays ok defense.

That's what I'm saying too. Not to say AD isn't capable of that again, because he's Anthony Davis for F's sake. But that's not typical for him. And we played like trash for large stretches of that game and still had two decent chances to win it.

[bondom34]

It's crazy to think that if AD had just a good game (around the 30 pt range) and not a great game like he did, we could have won even in the face of the rough start. He delivered when it counted for them. In future matchups against the Pels, Grant can't be matched up against AD EVER. He got violated every single time and got into foul trouble. You have to put SA on him and live with the results.

Yeah, he will get to play the pick and pop game, but you can't get put into the bonus in the first 5 mins of every quarter.

Close game with Abrines and Patterson not being able to hit water in a boat. God Patterson sucks ass. At least Abrines made one three and plays ok defense.

That's what I'm saying too. Not to say AD isn't capable of that again, because he's Anthony Davis for F's sake. But that's not typical for him. And we played like trash for large stretches of that game and still had two decent chances to win it.

Yeah I'm with both of you. Feels weird to feel kinda good about a loss. Try to split the back to back.

[Old Man Game]

It's crazy to think that if AD had just a good game (around the 30 pt range) and not a great game like he did, we could have won even in the face of the rough start. He delivered when it counted for them. In future matchups against the Pels, Grant can't be matched up against AD EVER. He got violated every single time and got into foul trouble. You have to put SA on him and live with the results.

Yeah, he will get to play the pick and pop game, but you can't get put into the bonus in the first 5 mins of every quarter.

Close game with Abrines and Patterson not being able to hit water in a boat. God Patterson sucks ass. At least Abrines made one three and plays ok defense.

That's what I'm saying too. Not to say AD isn't capable of that again, because he's Anthony Davis for F's sake. But that's not typical for him. And we played like trash for large stretches of that game and still had two decent chances to win it.

Yeah I'm with both of you. Feels weird to feel kinda good about a loss. Try to split the back to back.

It was still somewhat frustrating to drop a game that felt like you should have won however ... Especially with two chances at threes to win it at the end. WHen Randle missed those two free throws I thought we were going to win it tbh. Alas, Alex no bueno.

[Limark]

Well that was a bit of a mess, those turnovers especially the 4 by Russ at the start of the game....

Also we really need Presti to use some of his magic powers and find a way to turn Abrines/Felton/Paterson into 1 or 2 reliable scorers - Abrines is so streaky he isn't worth it and Patterson is so bad he'll likely be out of the league next season

[Pillendreher]

What a horrible loss. They basically handed them the game with their poor effort. Rotations were late all night long, no proper box outs...how many bs buckets did they get because the Thunder were always one second too late?!

They took 43 3s and missed 10 FTs. They also gave up 18 2nd chance points on 17 offensive boards for New Orleans. You can't miss easy attempts at the basket, send the other team to the line 30 times (How nice would it be if Adams got these off ball calls Davis got all night long btw. Terrible reffing), miss way too many of your own FTs, brick too many 3s and then give up offensive rebounds. Show some **** effort and discipline and you win this game. For ****'s sake.

Russ needs to stop sucking and soon. This is insane. He's not playing any defense and his offense has been bad consistently as well. You can get away with him leaving players wide open and trailing the play by 20 ft because he just doesn't want to give the proper effort to just stay with his man when he's one of the best offensive players in the league, but not when he's playing like this. Right now his offensive game is to miss FTs, give up the ball on fast breaks (!!!!) and either brick or 3 or just stay out of the way.
Something has to change: He can't be trash on both sides off the floor.

[bondom34]

Thought his decision making was pretty solid honestly. That feels like a big overreaction to me. Dunno.

[Pillendreher]

Thought his decision making was pretty solid honestly. That feels like a big overreaction to me. Dunno.

The main issue is not even the decision making. It's the fact that he is not even making the decisions anymore. I don't know if there's a stat to properly track this, but over the last couple of games he has not even been the one making the decisions most of the time. It's good that he's willing to share the playmaking duty, but we can't have him giving up the ball on a fast break when he as an open lane to the bucket. We can't have him stand around somewhere more often than not, watching teammates do something. That's not what we're paying him for. And this hasn't been mentioned, so I'm the one that's going to say it: These are the kind of nights we need him to be Russell Westbrook. Since the 0-4 start, there has been a theme to our losses: It's when the defense wasn't at its usual level and the offense could not step up to overcome the defensive performance. Russ needs to be able to win games like this for us. We can't have him be this passive chucker. I don't know what the hell is up with him, but we can't afford for him to play like this going forward, especially playing against the better teams in the league.

[bondom34]

Thought his decision making was pretty solid honestly. That feels like a big overreaction to me. Dunno.

The main issue is not even the decision making. It's the fact that he is not even making the decisions anymore. I don't know if there's a stat to properly track this, but over the last couple of games he has not even been the one making the decisions most of the time. It's good that he's willing to share the playmaking duty, but we can't have him giving up the ball on a fast break when he as an open lane to the bucket. We can't have him stand around somewhere more often than not, watching teammates do something. That's not what we're paying him for. And this hasn't been mentioned, so I'm the one that's going to say it: These are the kind of nights we need him to be Russell Westbrook. Since the 0-4 start, there has been a theme to our losses: It's when the defense wasn't at its usual level and the offense could not step up to overcome the defensive performance. Russ needs to be able to win games like this for us. We can't have him be this passive chucker. I don't know what the hell is up with him, but we can't afford for him to play like this going forward, especially playing against the better teams in the league.

Except he is making decisions, hes hitting open shooters, which is what he should be doing. He shot 8-16, and hit Abrines for an open game winner. The turnovers were an issue early but after the 1st quarter had 3 the rest of the game. He wasn't chucking even lol.

[Pillendreher]

Thought his decision making was pretty solid honestly. That feels like a big overreaction to me. Dunno.

The main issue is not even the decision making. It's the fact that he is not even making the decisions anymore. I don't know if there's a stat to properly track this, but over the last couple of games he has not even been the one making the decisions most of the time. It's good that he's willing to share the playmaking duty, but we can't have him giving up the ball on a fast break when he as an open lane to the bucket. We can't have him stand around somewhere more often than not, watching teammates do something. That's not what we're paying him for. And this hasn't been mentioned, so I'm the one that's going to say it: These are the kind of nights we need him to be Russell Westbrook. Since the 0-4 start, there has been a theme to our losses: It's when the defense wasn't at its usual level and the offense could not step up to overcome the defensive performance. Russ needs to be able to win games like this for us. We can't have him be this passive chucker. I don't know what the hell is up with him, but we can't afford for him to play like this going forward, especially playing against the better teams in the league.

Except he is making decisions, hes hitting open shooters, which is what he should be doing. He shot 8-16, and hit Abrines for an open game winner. The turnovers were an issue early but after the 1st quarter had 3 the rest of the game. He wasn't chucking even lol.

Come on man. The guy can't even get to the rim. He drove to the basket in the 3rd quarter and I'm pretty sure it was the first time he managed to do that all game. We can't have Russell Westbrook be this guy. He needs to be our driving force offensively. He's not even pushing the pace, even when he has a chance to. These issues cannot be outweighed by him making a couple of correct passes per game. His main offensive weapon is putting massive pressure on the opposing defense. He's not doing that. I don't know why, but he is not close to the player we need him to be right now.

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[bondom34]

The main issue is not even the decision making. It's the fact that he is not even making the decisions anymore. I don't know if there's a stat to properly track this, but over the last couple of games he has not even been the one making the decisions most of the time. It's good that he's willing to share the playmaking duty, but we can't have him giving up the ball on a fast break when he as an open lane to the bucket. We can't have him stand around somewhere more often than not, watching teammates do something. That's not what we're paying him for. And this hasn't been mentioned, so I'm the one that's going to say it: These are the kind of nights we need him to be Russell Westbrook. Since the 0-4 start, there has been a theme to our losses: It's when the defense wasn't at its usual level and the offense could not step up to overcome the defensive performance. Russ needs to be able to win games like this for us. We can't have him be this passive chucker. I don't know what the hell is up with him, but we can't afford for him to play like this going forward, especially playing against the better teams in the league.

Except he is making decisions, hes hitting open shooters, which is what he should be doing. He shot 8-16, and hit Abrines for an open game winner. The turnovers were an issue early but after the 1st quarter had 3 the rest of the game. He wasn't chucking even lol.

Come on man. The guy can't even get to the rim. He drove to the basket in the 3rd quarter and I'm pretty sure it was the first time he managed to do that all game. We can't have Russell Westbrook be this guy. He needs to be our driving force offensively. He's not even pushing the pace, even when he has a chance to. These issues cannot be outweighed by him making a couple of correct passes per game. His main offensive weapon is putting massive pressure on the opposing defense. He's not doing that. I don't know why, but he is not close to the player we need him to be right now.

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I think we agree there. It seems pretty clear its something physical, because mentally to me he looks sharp and making passes he used to not make. But physically I'm not sure he's "back" from injury yet. I posted his numbers earlier itt and skipping his 1st 2 games and most recent 2 they're pretty solid. But yea, I do think something's up.

I thought this game was encouraging. Good opponent, played poorly (not just him, others too), and could have won. Team needs someone who can shoot.

[DoubleJ13]

Shocked they even had a chance the way the game went. Grant having 5 fouls 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter killed since nobody could rebound anything. Went small which wasn't going to work against Randle & Davis, put Patterson in & he isn't rebounding anything anyway.

Also FTs would be cooler if anybody could make them. Russ going from an 80% guy to a 60% guy over 2 years is the most confusing thing I've ever seen.

[bondom34]

Also, a note but AD has 40 point games against 4 top 10 defenses. Denver, Boston, OKC, and Miami

[Pillendreher]

I thought this game was encouraging. Good opponent, played poorly (not just him, others too), and could have won. Team needs someone who can shoot.

To me it wasn't. They dug themselves in a hole by gifting the Pelicans all these easy opportunities to score and by not converting their own easy opportunities. I can't feel good about a game like this because it wasn't just variance that made them lose. If they showed better effort and discipline, they win this. Hell, if just Westbrook gives a little bit of effort defensively they win. So that's why this frustrates the hell out of me.

[bondom34]

I thought this game was encouraging. Good opponent, played poorly (not just him, others too), and could have won. Team needs someone who can shoot.

To me it wasn't. They dug themselves in a hole by gifting the Pelicans all these easy opportunities to score and by not converting their own easy opportunities. I can't feel good about a game like this because it wasn't just variance that made them lose. If they showed better effort and discipline, they win this. Hell, if just Westbrook gives a little bit of effort defensively they win. So that's why this frustrates the hell out of me.

I thought he was fine there tbh. But I'd rather lose and know they played like crap than lose due to some random thing. Just how I'd go

[bondom34]

And I miss the Patterson avy. Now I have to see Grant's mug every time

[Pillendreher]

Can't have Patterson as an avi anymore. He's playing like he's gonna be out of the league soon.

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