Thunder/Wizards Recap

This article should be subtitled - how I learned to say "how the heck did THAT happen?" or "how I learned to hate 7 game road trips."  Either way, this game had all the makings of a "trap" game...anyone who follows the NBA regularly knows what I mean.  And a trap game it ended up being, with the Thunder losing to the Wizards 101-99.  This is what I meant when I said that the game against the Raptors didn't mean much....as long as you don't then go out and drop the next game to an equally bad team like the Wiz.

Okay...to be fully honest, it took a jumper from Bradley Beal with 0.3 seconds left to win this one for the hapless Wiz, who have only 5 total wins on the season, but somehow managed to beat both of last years NBA Finals representatives (with their win over Miami coming earlier this year.)  But on the second night of a back to back, it would appear that the Thunder took this one a little too lightly.  Giving up 30 points in the opening quarter is never a good sign, and allowing 5 guys on the other team to score in double digits is along not a good sign.  When Kevin Seraphin and Martell Webster are dropping a combined 41 points on you, someone didn't get their defensive assignment.  The Thunder held (?) the Wiz to 43.7% shooting from the field, but only shot 42.5% themselves.  OKC collected 13 offensive rebounds - but allowed the other team to get the same amount.  Poor offense and poor defense is going to get you an L most nights in the Association.  And Monday night, it did just that for the Thunder.

When you shoot 42.5% from the field, it usually means everyone had an off night...it that holds true with this game.  KD shot 9-19, which is bad for him, and Russ and KMart were even worse, going 4-17 and 3-12 respectively.  Heck...KMart missed all 6 of his 3s, and this is a guy shooting nearly 44% from that distance on the season.  Ibaka was the only bright spot for the Thunder, going 12-17 from the field and adding 11 boards.  But for all that...even he had just a +1 rating.  Yikes.  I'd say this was just one of those games where the other team was up for it, and the Thunder just weren't...but John Wall, Jordan Crawford, and Nene didn't even suit up.  So basically a no-name cast of rookies and D-League call-ups beat OKC.  Uhhh...I think the technical word for that is "not-good."

Considering they are still 9-5 on the road, and own one of the best records in the League (and on the same night the Spurs lost to the Hornets and the Knicks got beat by the Celtics) so its not panic button time yet.  Not like Lakers panic button time at least.  But it is troublesome that most of the Thunders early season success has come at home.  And with a lot of road games left, its going to be a good test of the Thunders "win-now" mentality to play this many games on the road in a row.  Can the #ThunderNationRISE to the challenge?  We shall see.