Loose play has meant lost leads
It’s a gradual slide.
It’s a missed assignment here, a bad shot there. Often this season the Thunder has looked loose with leads, and sometimes that’s led to losses – or at the very least tense moments – late in games.
“You can see maybe rotations defensively not being as crisp and sharp as they were in the first half,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said on Thursday. “Or you can see the cutting and the moving and the screening on offense not being as sharp, as crisp as it was in the first half.”
On Wednesday, Oklahoma City built a 27-7 first-quarter lead against the Bulls, and though Chicago never threatened, it had pulled within 13 by the finish, despite Donovan giving his starters fourth-quarter minutes.
“It’s hard,” Donovan said. “It sounds simple, but the concentration, the focus and building up that stamina over 48 minutes, possession after possession after possession – because there are so many possessions – is challenging.”
Four times this season, the Thunder has led by double-digit points in the first half and gone on to lose, dropping those four games by an average of 6.5 points. OKC had an 18-point lead against Boston and lost by seven. It had Sacramento down 17 and lost by eight.
“I just think once we build (the lead), we get into a relaxed or a care-free type of game where we’re not as sharp as when we start games off,” forward Paul
George said. “We’re loose with the ball, taking tough shots. We just play a lot more relaxed, and that’s where we have to get away from that. We’re so much better than that.”
The blown leads have been particularly alarming in losses, but not limited to them.
The Thunder has won its past three games – against the Clippers, Mavericks and Bulls – by an average of 11.7 points. That’s a comfortable margin in the NBA, but OKC led in each game by at least 20. Those teams have a combined record of 9-31. The competition stiffens Friday in San Antonio. Even without injured starters
Kawhi Leonard and Tony
Parker, the Spurs are 9-6. “If we go up big, it’s not a team that we can relax on, as we have, given the game (Wednesday) night,” George said. “We just got to have a professional approach. Regardless of who’s in, who’s out in their jerseys. It’s still a San Antonio team that’s very capable of beating us.”
Adams update
Steven Adams went through non-contact portions of practice on Thursday, Donovan said, and his availability against the Spurs will be a gameday decision.
Adams is the Thunder’s fourth-leading scorer at 12.4 points per game and its leading rebounder at 8.4 per game. He has missed the past three games with a right calf contusion.
“I think he’s progressing in a positive direction,” Donovan said. “I think (Friday) will be a big day for him at shootaround to have probably more clarity of whether or not he’s capable of going.”
Roberson helps at home
Andre Roberson planned a Thanksgiving meal giveaway Thursday night in San Antonio, his home town.
The Thunder guard planned to distribute 200 meals at the Davis-Scott YMCA, where he grew up playing, after the Thunder arrived in town. Each meal contained a turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, a 5-pound bag of potatoes and two packets of gravy mix.