Oklahoma City Thunder Let One Slip Away Against Atlanta Hawks

The Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, losing 110-108.

Despite a great night from Russell Westbrook offensively, the Thunder defense couldn’t contain Dennis Schroder and Paul Millsap. The two Hawks combined for 61 points. Westbrook had 46, on 33 shots, but missed his last three shots on the final possession with OKC down two. He was questionably fouled on all three shots, but since he’s the Cam Newton of the NBA, he doesn’t get those calls. Steven Adams game-tying dunk was milliseconds after the buzzer.

Jerami Grant had 15 off the bench while Andre Roberson had 14.

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This is another game that OKC let get away, which has happened a lot this year. The Hawks aren’t a bad team, but OKC simply can’t afford to waste nights like this when Westbrook has 46. The defense was abysmal, especially in the third quarter. Atlanta shot 54% from the field and 40% from three. Meanwhile, OKC shot 28% from three.

And therein lies the problem with this team. They have no shooters.

That’s not a secret. Everyone knows it, and yet OKC has still managed to win more games than they’ve lost, but its games like this that are extra maddening. Westbrook creates so many open opportunities for his teammates, and there isn’t a single reliable shooter to knock down the shots. Especially when Oladipo is injured.

Roberson was 3/9 from three (sorry, I don’t want Roberson shooting nine threes a game) and Grant was 3/3. Westbrook was 3/10 (like Roberson, I don’t want Russ shooting ten threes a game) and the rest of the team was 1/13. Anthony Morrow and Alex Abrines, supposedly the two best shooters on the team, were a combined 1/8.

Either Morrow and Abrines need to figure out how to shoot again, or OKC desperately need to trade for a reliable three point shooter. It’d be nice if both things happened.

It’d also be nice if Victor Oladipo got healthy. The Thunder are now 1-3 without their starting shooting guard. Their one win came against Phoenix, and their three losses came against Portland, Utah, and Atlanta. Without Oladipo, this is nothing more than a below average team that is going to beat bad teams on the back of Russ. With Oladipo, they can surprise and hang with most teams in the league.

On top of the lack shooting, OKC has given up 100+ points in every game without Oladipo. Morrow, who has started the last two games, pretty much becomes unplayable if he’s not hitting shots. He can’t defend the perimeter and isn’t giving you anything offensively, making him the most useless player on a team that has Semaj Christon and Kyle Singler.

Steven Adams only had six points on four shots. Dwight Howard played lockdown defense from the bench. With Howard out, Donovan and Westbrook have to find a way to get Adams the ball more. Maybe the lob won’t be there every time, but Russ has proven that he can get into the lane, draw the defender over, and drop it off to Adams. There was none of that against Atlanta.

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That’s the odd thing about Russell Westbrook. You know if he does one thing really well one game, he’ll completely abandon it next game and try to do the other thing he does really well. Against Phoenix, he treated the court like Rucker Park and the game like his personal And1 Mixtape.

After 22 assists against the Suns, he only had seven against the Hawks. Some of that can be blamed on missed shots, but some of it can be blamed on Westbrook not getting guys easy looks around the basket. He hasn’t taken 30+ shots all of December. So, I guess it was just time for him to shoot his shot.

I’m willing to bet that Adams scores more than six points in the first quarter against New Orleans. Because Russ knows that he failed to get him involved in this game and will make a conscious effort to feed him early against the Pelicans. That’s just Russ.

If you’re looking for a positive, Enes Kanter has been really good passing out of the post lately. It hasn’t led to a ton of assists (again, lack of shooting), but it’s an encouraging sign. He’s picked up on the double team, found the open man or cutter, and then gone to the basket to pick up an offensive rebound because he knows there’s a 70% chance that the guy he passed it to will miss.

OKC will be back at it against Anthony Davis and four other guys on Wednesday.