Thunder just not good enough against hungry Heat
The Thunder and Heat entered their Monday night game with stunningly similar records. OKC was 12-18, Miami was 13-17. A Thunder win would have made them deadlocked in the NBA standings.
And the Thunder even led the majority of the game.
But these teams are not similar. Most everyone knows it, and any holdouts had to be convinced by the end of the Heat's 108-94 victory at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The Thunder's occasional impressive victory and routine competitiveness has masked the truth. While a fun to watch and some young talent that has potential, the Thunder can be overmatched and quick.
And was Monday night.
The Heat, with injury problems all season, has been a shell of the squad that stormed the Orlando bubble last summer and reached the NBA Finals. But Miami, winner of three straight, appears ready to turn it on and that's exactly what the Heat did.
To be honest, the Heat took the Thunder's lunch money.
The Thunder had a 63-56 lead midway through the third quarter, and Miami turned up the Heat we know so well.
“Good lesson for us,”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We definitely enjoy competing against a team like them, because we can learn a lot about ourselves.”
What the Thunder mostly learned is that it's overmatched against talented teams that get serious.
In an 11-minute span of the second half, the Thunder committed nine turnovers. Some of the soft offensive play that OKC sometimes can get away with had no chance against a Miami defense intent on grabbing this game with a vise grip.
With players like wing Jimmy Butler and center Bam Adebayo, the Heat could just switch assignments on every Thunder screen. That stagnated the OKC offense. And the Thunder got lax.
Darius Bazley dribbled weakly into a Butler steal. Luguentz Dort was stripped by Butler on a drive. Isaiah Roby and Mike Muscala traveled without Miami even
showing force. Hamidou Diallo opened the fourth quarter with a weak pass, then committed back-to-back turnovers a few minutes later, getting picked by Kendrick Nunn and bouncing a soft pass into the lane.
That stuff is survivable against Cleveland. Not against this Miami squad.
“Against a team like that, it's going to take 48 minutes of good basketball toge taW,”s aid Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “I don't think we did enough of that.”
The naked truth is that the Thunder doesn't have enough good players. Not right now. Not against hungry teams like Miami.
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 FM-98.1.