Has this team learned how to close games?

[Phailadelphia]

It seems like it or perhaps it's just coincidence. But since the All-Star Break, OKC has gotten up for big games and they've closed them. The best examples include @Miami Heat, the first April match-up @Denver, a clutch run @LAL to win that game, and most recently game 1 of the playoffs where Denver came up empty on 5 or 6 straight possessions to end the game.

As young and relatively inexperienced as this team is, it's nice to see them executing well down the stretch and closing out games. Why they can't or don't do this to end the first half of most of these games as well is frustrating, though.

Thoughts?

[theokie]

Yeah closing quarters has been a struggle.

And even though most OKC fans think we have a terrible offensive game plan down the stretch (isolation plays only, no ball movement, bad shots etc) they have been really effective at putting teams away at the end of games.