Andre Roberson’s air balls cost Thunder vs. Minnesota

So many good things came out of the Thunder-Minnesota game Sunday night, that you almost didn’t mind that the Timberwolves won it 115-113.

We rediscovered what we already knew. That Russell Westbrook will be no wallflower just because he’s surrounded by a bunch of shiny new toys.

We learned what we hoped but weren’t for certain. That Westbrook would defer when necessary, even at crunch time, and Carmelo Anthony’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left, off a Westbrook pass, was a play that will pay off for months to come.

We saw that Steven Adams is living up to those analysts who proclaimed him a top50 player; Stone Cold had 17 points and 13 rebounds, matched up mostly with Minnesota monster Karl-Anthony Towns.

We found that the Thunder bench can make a difference. Raymond Felton and Jerami Grant kept OKC afloat with 17 points combined in the first half.

But all of that was overshadowed by the revelation that Andre Roberson remains a psychological mess and at times can’t be on the court, no matter how badly the Thunder needs his defense.

On the opening possession of third quarter, Roberson was fouled on a shot under the basket. He went to the foul line and air-balled the first shot. Then Roberson air-balled the second shot. A few minutes later, Roberson missed a layup, though this one was somewhat contested, unlike the tap-in he missed in the first quarter.

With 7:09 left in the third quarter, Billy Donovan pulled Roberson, and he didn’t return until 29.4 seconds remained in the game.

And that matters, because the Thunder needs Roberson. His defense is one of the reasons the Thunder has the potential to be elite. He and Paul George on the perimeter together are a nightmare for opposing offenses.

Heck, if Roberson would just miss layups, the Thunder could live with it. But not drawing iron on a foul shot will make teams foul him intentionally any time the game matters.

The truth is, the Timberwolves won this one on Andrew Wiggins’ desperation 30-footer at the buzzer, which banked in, a bitter pill of bad luck for the Thunder, but those things happen over an 82-game NBA season. The Thunder lost this one because of what Wiggins did earlier in the fourth quarter.

OKC had clawed back from the abyss and trailed just 98-94, but with Wiggins reinserted into the game, he went right at the defensively-challenged Alex Abrines and drew a foul. Westbrook then switched assignments with Abrines, but that meant point guard Jeff Teague drove at Abrines.

Donovan responded by replacing Abrines with the hearty but smallish Raymond Felton, so the Timberwolves picked on Felton. Four straight possessions Minnesota scored, and Westbrook’s 10-points-in-100 seconds was fully negated.

This is a problem. If you can’t play your best defender, then his value goes south.

Roberson was magnificent defensively in the Houston playoff series last April — heck, he’s always magnificently defensively; was in the first half against T-Wolf Jimmy Butler. But Roberson’s foul shooting is getting worse and worse. The Rockets started fouling Roberson intentionally as the series went on, and that’s a road the Thunder doesn’t want to travel.

Donovan defended Roberson on Sunday night.

“I’ve said this before about Andre,” Donovan said. “There’s like 15 things that he does at an exceptionally high level. And people want to focus on his free-throw shooting and jumpshooting. That doesn’t tell the whole story for who he is. He’s important to our team.”

Yeah, no kidding. And Donovan, not the rest of the state of Oklahoma, is who kept Roberson on the bench for 19 straight minutes in the second half of a game that required all hands on deck.

Roberson re-entered at the end, after Westbrook’s 3-pointer tied the game 110-110, because Donovan could play possession-by-possession basketball. Roberson forced the ball out of Wiggins’ hands, and Minnesota took a lead only because Towns made a running jumper with an incredible degree of difficulty. The Thunder played superb defense on that possession, and that’s because Roberson was on the floor.

I’ve defended Roberson’s minutes, and his $10-million-a-year contract, because defense matters. But if you air-ball foul shots in the NBA, you can’t play.

Roberson’s foul shooting is getting worse, down to 42.3 percent last season, and the air balls were his first attempts of this season.

Whoever is coaching Roberson on foul shots needs to stop. It’s not working. Like I’ve said before, the Thunder needs a sports psychologist on the case. Or a new one. This is a total failure of the Thunder organization, for a player to regress like this in such a fundamental part of the game.

“Here’s a guy who’s a great human being,” Donovan said. “And is committed to winning. As a coach, I need to find ways to utilize him.”

Hey, I’m president of the Andre Roberson Fan Club. I’m not saying don’t play him. I’m saying he needs to play 30 minutes a game. But only if he can hit the rim on a foul shot.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.