Thunder stumped at the free throw line
Chesapeake Energy Arena was eerily quiet. It was almost as if the Thunder fan base was collectively holding its breath as Paul George stepped to the free throw line.
George, who has shot 83.5 percent from the charity stripe this season, is one of OKC's best free throw shooters. But on Wednesday night, even George wasn't immune to the Thunder's free throw struggles.
Over the last three games, the Thunder shot 62 percent from the free throw line, the worst in the league by almost 10 percentage points. But in the past two, both close games, OKC shot 80 percent from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
“You try to create games and situations and environments inside practices and shootarounds where they're having to shoot free throws,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “We do that every single day. We do a competitive game from the free throw line. We try to do that at every shootaround.”
The Thunder tends to shoot free throws well in pressure situations. When the pressure was off Wednesday, however, OKC bounced free throw after free throw off the rim.
When George stepped to the line in an eight-point game, with 2:04 on the clock, he had made just one of his previous four free throw attempts.
It wasn't just him either. When the Raptors made their eighth straight foul shot late in the first quarter, the Thunder had only drained four of its 13 attempts from the free throw line. At halftime, Jerami Grant (3-of-4) was the only Thunder player who had drained more than one free throw.
With the game on the line, George made three free throws in a row. The crowd cheered as if he had just hit a deep fadeaway 3-pointer.
The game didn't finish quite as lopsided as it began, but Toronto still shot 90.5 percent from the line, and the
“You try to create games and situations and environments inside practices and shootarounds where they're having to shoot free throws. We do that every single day. We do a competitive game from the free throw line. We try to do that at every shootaround.”
Thunder coach Billy Donovan
Thunder barely topped 50 percent (15-of-19).
“We took more free throws than they did, and they actually made more free throws than we did,” Donovan said after the 123-114 overtime loss. “I think we're getting answers to things that we're going to have to do at a high level.”
Back to Tulsa
OKC will carry on the tradition of playing in Tulsa next season. The Thunder announced Thursday that it will play the Mavericks at the BOK Center on Oct. 8 in the Thunder's 11th preseason game in Tulsa since the franchise relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008. Tickets go on sale April 9 on bokcenter.com.