2/14 | G57: Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Pelicans - 7PM CST

[Dadouv47]

I didn't care about Morris signing with us but after that 2pat performance I can't wait to see him on the floor

[Thunder Up]

Noel destroys all game and Billy D goes with Adams for the last 6 or 7 minutes of the game while he is consistently out of position on key possessions, yuck

Nerlens should have re-entered with 2 or 3 mins left. No excuse for that inept of coaching

[ThunderBolt]

I kind of expected to lose until Davis left the game. I thought we could surely play lazy and still win. It’s a shame that this team can’t be committed enough on defense to win games like this. They’ve shown they are still capable of playing good defense when they want to but they don’t seem to want to consistently. I guess offense is just easier. It just seems like as soon as one struggling player has a food game(russ), George has an off game and Adams has fallen off the face of the earth. Ferguson has some upside but he’s taking 1-2 stupid shots a game lately. I hope Morris is healthy because Patterson isn’t deserving of minutes anymore. Virtually every look he gets is wide open and he bricks everything. I just really hate losing to bad teams missing their best player. Time to gat healthy.

[Dadouv47]

OKC with the toughest schedule remaining, Denver 4th, Houston 15 and Portland 17. No margin for error if we want to end up 3rd at least. FInishing with 4 wins ahead of Portland + tie break would have been sweat but we had to screw this up.

[Old Man Game]

I've never seen a team so ready for their weekend as the Thunder were tonight. Just pitiful effort from everyone except for Westbrook and Noel.

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[Dadouv47]

Well losing against a ''bad'' team is stupid but I'm more concerned about Adams. 3rd straight year that he's playing bad in the second part of the season. In 2017 he was trash 1-2 months after signing his extension; then he started VERY well last season and was kind of bad late season and playoffs. This year was his best year first 2 months and now almost a month that is our weakest starter (he was our second best player in the beginning of the season).

Not sure 8 days off will help him but I'm glad he didn't make the all star after all

[Dn4sty]

Adams looks terrible. He’s unable to basically do everything he’s good at right now. I love him, but I think it would have made sense to close with Noel tonight

[Dn4sty]

OKC with the toughest schedule remaining, Denver 4th, Houston 15 and Portland 17. No margin for error if we want to end up 3rd at least. FInishing with 4 wins ahead of Portland + tie break would have been sweat but we had to screw this up.

Portland has a 7 game road trip after the all star break and they are 10-15 on the road. That’s really really tough

[Dadouv47]

OKC with the toughest schedule remaining, Denver 4th, Houston 15 and Portland 17. No margin for error if we want to end up 3rd at least. FInishing with 4 wins ahead of Portland + tie break would have been sweat but we had to screw this up.

Portland has a 7 game road trip after the all star break and they are 10-15 on the road. That’s really really tough

Yep true. But they will probably win at least 3 games against Cavs/Hornets/Grizzlies/Nets (Nets are still tough to beat on the road). Have to hope they lose at least 2 games against Raptors/Celtics/Sixers.

[Dn4sty]

OKC with the toughest schedule remaining, Denver 4th, Houston 15 and Portland 17. No margin for error if we want to end up 3rd at least. FInishing with 4 wins ahead of Portland + tie break would have been sweat but we had to screw this up.

Portland has a 7 game road trip after the all star break and they are 10-15 on the road. That’s really really tough

Yep true. But they will probably win at least 3 games against Cavs/Hornets/Grizzlies/Nets (Nets are still tough to beat on the road). Have to hope they lose at least 2 games against Raptors/Celtics/Sixers.

OKC needs tiebreaker against Rockets and Jazz badly. I could see the Jazz winning 19 more games. The Rockets could get 18 more. I think 14-16 is realistic for OKC. It’s going to get close. I don’t think Portland has a shot

[Osirus89]

Not too shaken up about this loss. I wish the team had come in with a bit more focus, but it was going to be tough considering the team looked checked out to start and not having JG and Schroder finally caught up with the team. It's a wonder they were able to beat Portland to be honest. They won the games they needed to win (HOU and POR) They probably should have won this game even with the up and down play, but NO was extra motivated after getting housed by Orlando and they were playing at home.

Team needs a break to allow guys to heal, rest, or whatever. At least the b2b that comes after the break is at home. IDK whats wrong with Adams. PG didn't shoot badly except from three, but my god was he trash from distance tonight. 15 attempts.....
Russ looked good which is probably the best thing about the game. Hopefully he can pick up his play for the last part of the season going into the playoffs.

[Dadouv47]

Portland has a 7 game road trip after the all star break and they are 10-15 on the road. That’s really really tough

Yep true. But they will probably win at least 3 games against Cavs/Hornets/Grizzlies/Nets (Nets are still tough to beat on the road). Have to hope they lose at least 2 games against Raptors/Celtics/Sixers.

OKC needs tiebreaker against Rockets and Jazz badly. I could see the Jazz winning 19 more games. The Rockets could get 18 more. I think 14-16 is realistic for OKC. It’s going to get close. I don’t think Portland has a shot

That's fair. Jazz are on fire lately and they have the 2nd easiest schedule left. That first game after the all star break is going to be huge. Ingles/Crowder know how to defend on PG13 so it's going to be very close.

Still think it's a 4 teams race for the 3rd spot and a 2 teams race for the 2nd (if somehow Denver starts losing a lot, including against us)

[Dn4sty]

Yep true. But they will probably win at least 3 games against Cavs/Hornets/Grizzlies/Nets (Nets are still tough to beat on the road). Have to hope they lose at least 2 games against Raptors/Celtics/Sixers.

OKC needs tiebreaker against Rockets and Jazz badly. I could see the Jazz winning 19 more games. The Rockets could get 18 more. I think 14-16 is realistic for OKC. It’s going to get close. I don’t think Portland has a shot

That's fair. Jazz is on fire lately and they have the 2nd easiest schedule left. That first game after the all star break is going to be huge. Ingles/Crowder know how to defend on PG13 so it's going to be very close.

Still think it's a 4 team race for the 3rd spot and a 2 team race for the 2nd (if somehow Denver starts losing a lot, including against us)

Agreed. OKC is one of seven teams in NBA with a winning road record. I think that it bodes well for them to survive the gauntlet and emerge as 3 seed.

[DoubleJ13]

The only part of this loss that stings at all really is that if they played just 5 minutes of good defense they would have been fine.

Outside of that it was the perfect trap game. Thunder been on fire recently, Pelicans are a dumpster fire, our depth is just weird already & that was before losing Grant & Schroder for a couple games, & the Pelicans for as bad as they are have a bunch of guys who kill the Thunder all the time.

[CROklahoma]

Why Adams was on the floor was beyond me.
He is killing the starting lineup, and in the night Noel got his career night, you just simply bench him, thats what bothers me with Billy, complete lack of sense ...

[Pillendreher]

What a horrible loss. Yeah, a lot of things didn't go our way (for every wide open brick from 3, the Pelicans made a trash 3 on the other end; all the 50/50 balls went their way), but you just can't lose games like this when you're fighting for seeding. The defense was good in the first half; the Pelicans scored most of their points off of Thunder turnovers and just weird bounces that basically jumpstarted their breaks. The 3rd quarter was beyond horrible though. No effort at all.

Just defend for a couple of minutes in the 3rd and you win this one. So damn frustrating.

[Pillendreher]

Adams looks terrible. He’s unable to basically do everything he’s good at right now. I love him, but I think it would have made sense to close with Noel tonight

There needs to be a discussion about his minutes. In 15/16, he was on the floor for 53 possessions a night. This season, that number's up to 73. And that's even though we have a very capable backup in Noel.

[Revived]

Noel is such a bargain for you guys.

It’s too bad Rich Paul is his agent and he’s gonna try to get him overpaid instead of taking a fair contract that helps both sides.

Noel is a perfect fit in Donovan’s system but I doubt Rich Paul cares about that.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Technically, the agent works for the player. If Noel wants to stay he'll do so at the tax MLE since that is the most OKC can offer. If Noel wants money he'll tell Paul to get him paid. It is always the players decision. I don't know why it is popular to blame the agent for doing what he is instructed to do by his boss.

[ThunderBolt]

Technically, the agent works for the player. If Noel wants to stay he'll do so at the tax MLE since that is the most OKC can offer. If Noel wants money he'll tell Paul to get him paid. It is always the players decision. I don't know why it is popular to blame the agent for doing what he is instructed to do by his boss.

Sports agents are just like real estate agents. They’ve created a system that necessitates their “skills” when in reality they serve little purpose other than to raise the costs between the negotiating parties to cover their fees. Like real estate agents, there are a few good ones out there but most of them are just trying to figure out a way to get their hand in someone else’s wallet.

Will rich Paul do what Noel asks if he says he wants to sign the mle? Sure. Is that the course he will advise him to take? We know the answer to that.

Edit: For the record, if I was Noel I wouldn't take a pay cut.