Thunder’s frustrations are on display in 108-104 loss
Paul George had just put the Thunder ahead in the third quarter, but Carmelo Anthony was still arguing about two defensive possessions before.
Lakers big man Julius Randle had bulled his way deep into the restricted area against Anthony, finishing his move with a bucket and an extralarge side of Anthony’s shoulder. As the Thunder walked over to the bench with a two-point lead, Anthony was still going at it with official Jason Phillips.
Like a handful of frustrated Thunder interactions with the officials on Sunday, you could see what was coming.
Until the final two minutes, the Thunder showed more frustration than urgency. It cost them in a 108-104 loss to the Lakers, OKC’s fourth in a row.
Playing for the sixth time in nine days can leave a team fatigued, not to mention the Thunder did so across multiple time zones, from Central, to Eastern, to Mountain, back to Central.
Yet, even in a matinee game on Super Bowl Sunday — an off-kilter starting time of 1 p.m. — the
Thunder chose to channel its little energy into debate rather than defense until it was too late.
“Sometimes, we expect calls that don’t go our way,” said Anthony, hesitant to talk about his blow from Randle in fear of sounding like a “cry baby.”
“Sometimes the referee is in a tough position to make those calls. We’re getting hit and sometimes
we want to meet in the middle, and sometimes it don’t work like that.”
The Thunder trailed by six points with 26 seconds left. George hit a 3-pointer, then OKC forced a turnover after Alex Abrines and Steven Adams trapped on the baseline.
The call was overturned, however, after officials’ review, and the game was effectively over when Randle hit 1-of-2 free throws.
George was livid. He thought he forced a tie-up on the play. But his emotions were running just as high at a critical juncture earlier in the fourth quarter.
When Brandon Ingram scored through George’s contact and foul, a technical foul for arguing resulted in a four-point possession for the Lakers.
It was the fourth and final technical for the Thunder. Aside from a defensive three-second violation, Steven Adams was T’ed up in the third quarter for disagreeing about an offensive foul to go with the techs for George and Anthony.
That’s four free points for the Lakers in a game decided by four.
“We’ve got guys that attack, are aggressive at the rim,” George said. “It’s a level of frustration that builds up over the course of a game.
“We have the right to be upset with getting it and nothing’s being done about it.”
Russell Westbrook (tied for the league lead with 11 technical fouls), Adams (seven), Anthony (six) and George (six) are all ranked in the top 17 in the league in technical fouls.
Donovan — who’s tied for the league lead among coaches with seven technicals — said his wife has even brought up his tally at home.
“I understand on their part with the amount of contact in a game there can be sometimes a level of frustration, feeling like they got fouled or something should be called and it’s not,” Donovan said. “It happens repeatedly. But at the same point, we’ve got to be able to control what we can control.”
What the Thunder can control is its defense. The five games since Andre Roberson’s season-ending injury haven’t helped with frustrations, as the Thunder has given up 108.2 points per 100 possessions, 17th in the NBA, and is allowing 40.4 percent from 3-point range — 25th in that span.
The Lakers shot 13-of30 (43.3 percent) from 3-point range, Donovan’s biggest concern.
The Thunder isn’t closing out properly to the 3-point line. There’s hesitation, players stopping short of shooters in fear of getting blown past with a drive.
“You want to protect the deep paint and you don’t want to give up layups, but when the ball gets kicked back out, we have got to have more urgency to run people off the line,” Donovan said.
“That’s where Andre Roberson is great, maybe the best I’ve ever seen at being able to close down on top of shooters and get them to bounce it, and also guard it. I think we’ve gotten killed at the 3-point line defensively.”
The frustration and faulty defense come at the worst time. Golden State looms on Tuesday.