Thunder torched by tough Hornets
He had used up so much magic in a week, but there was a moment on Sunday when it looked like maybe Russell Westbrook had another trick up his sleeve.
Time was running out on the Thunder when he leaned into a 3-pointer and drew a foul, ratting home the shot to cut what had been a 21-point Hornets lead to 11.
Westbrook went to the free-throw line with 1:35 to play, his team clinging to the slimmest of comeback hopes and Chesapeake Energy Arena buzzing with something like belief.
He missed the free throw — perhaps on purpose — and was called for a lane violation, overturning an offensive rebound and score.
The Hornets went on to win 113-101 on an afternoon when even Westbrook’s wizardry — 40 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists — wasn’t enough to offset a sluggish start.
“Not just this game, but the past three, four games, we’ve been scratching and clawing the last couple minutes of the game,” forward Andre Roberson said. “That’s how we should play the whole game. I feel like we’ve got to do a better job coming out being ready to play.”
The Thunder had looked that way on Friday against San Antonio — a loss in which it blew a 21-point lead — but that’s been an outlier of late.
In the other four games the Thunder played over a seven-day period — at Houston, at Dallas, at Orlando and against the Hornets, Oklahoma City trailed entering the fourth quarter by an average of 15 points per game.
The Thunder went 2-2 in those four games, but the wins came courtesy of late surges by Westbrook against the Mavericks and Magic that masked a slew of shortcomings.
On Sunday, the primary one was turnovers.
Oklahoma City committed a season-high 24 of them, leading to 35 Hornets points.
Westbrook, whose 40th triple-double of the season brought him to within one of tying Oscar Robertson’s single-season NBA record, had eight turnovers. Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams four each. Taj Gibson had three. Eighteen of those turnovers were Charlotte steals, live-ball giveaways that can lead directly to points.
They weren’t OKC’s only issue. For the second time this season in a loss to the Hornets, the Thunder struggled to defend without fouling, sending Charlotte to the free-throw line 32 times.
Some of those defensive struggles were lingering Thunder issues, particularly guarding on the perimeter. Kemba Walker shook loose for 29 points, making 6 of 12 3-pointers. Frank Kaminsky scored 18 and hit 3 of 5 3s.
But there was something more lacking on Sunday. Charlotte, a game and a half out of the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, played with an edge absent for the Thunder.
“They’re desperate,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “They want to play in the playoffs. They’re laying it on the line their last five or six games. I like playing against desperate teams because it exposes what you have to do to really compete and play at that extraordinarily high level.”
The Thunder did that only in spurts on Sunday, and mostly when faced with big deficits. There was a 12-4 run at the end of the second quarter to cut Charlotte’s halftime lead to 59-54 and that late fourth-quarter surge to cut a 21-point lead to 11. Neither was enough. As a result, Oklahoma City is stumbling into the stretch run. It ended Sunday two games ahead of Memphis for the sixth seed in the West, but on a two-game losing streak that’s perilously close to five.
“We’re trying to get a seed,” Oladipo said. “We’ve clinched the playoffs, but I’m sure if you go around the locker room and ask everybody, we want to be in a certain position, certain situation. Plus it’s just the will to compete, man. We’ve got to get ready for the playoffs.”