Thunder 97, Hornets 124: The Day After Report
Nuggets & Notes
- There's no sugarcoating this one: last night was bad. The Charlotte Hornets should not be able to waltz into the Paycom Center and drub the defending champs by 27. After the Oklahoma City Thunder tied the game at 33 after a rocky start, the Thunder was barely even competitive for the remainder of the game.
- OKC's cold night made the North Pole seem downright pleasant, while Charlotte was so hot, it's going to star in the next Glen Powell movie.
- Charlotte shot 53% from the field, 51% from three, and 92% from the line. On the other hand, the Thunder shot 37% from the field, 28% from three, and 67% from the charity stripe. I mean, OKC's shooting was so bad, at various times its three-point shooting percentage was above its FG%, and OKC's three-point percentage peaked in the mid 30s.
- I tried very hard to figure out who the Thunder's best player was last night. I don't know, man, I think it was Kenrich Williams. Kenny scored 8 points (2-of-3 from deep), had 3 rebounds (2 offensive), 2 assists, and 2 steals in 17 minutes.
- I said yesterday that we weren't going to see that many rough nights from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But that's two in a row, and this one was rougher.
- That said, SGA couldn't buy a free throw. Several attempts should've drawn a foul, and yet not a whistle to be found. Shai is not really a complainer, but at one point, it seemed like he was asking how hard do the Hornets have to hack him before a foul will be called. Does there need to be blood on the court?
- The Thunder attack the paint more than any other team in the league, led by the MVP. But if the officiating is going to allow opponents to throw hands inside without penalty, OKC's offense is going to be neutered. If the Thunder have to rely on jump shooting to win, you can probably forget about repeating.
- OKC scored 29 points off turnovers, to just 8 by Charlotte. I couldn't imagine OKC would be a +28 in points off turnovers and lose by 27. Insane stuff, really.
- The Thunder is just 6-6 over its last 12 games, and the Spurs pull to within 4 games for the top spot in the Western Conference.
- I think I'm going to watch the last 3 minutes of Game 7 of the NBA Finals on repeat today.
One Key Takeaway
I'd like to just flush this one from my memory, but I'm not going to leave you guys hanging without a takeaway. And today's takeaway is brought to you by the letter "R". R for rebounding.
Without Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams, OKC has been beaten up on the boards. Since December 28 (the last time Hart played), every opponent has had at least 10 offensive rebounds, and last night was particularly galling.
Charlotte nabbed 12 offensive rebounds, but that stat is more shocking when you factor in that Charlotte shot 51% from the field. Using my math wizardry, the Hornets rebounded 33% of their misses. OKC has got to figure out how to keep its opponents from getting second chance after second chance.
Getting Hart and J-Will back will help for sure, but if you wanted to look at one key to each of the Thunder's losses, rebounding might be it. In every one of the Thunder's 6 losses this season, it gave up double-digits in offensive rebounds.
OKC has thrived on starving its opponents of possessions–mainly through turnovers. But if the opposition can counter that with rebounding, especially while shooting 99% from the field, it's a recipe for a big fat L.
