After what can only be described as a terrible four-game road trip, the Oklahoma City Thunder (43-20) return home to the Chesapeake Energy Arena tonight. They will face the Los Angeles Clippers, one week after allowing them to make a 17-point, fourth-quarter comeback in their worst defeat of the season.
“We’re up 17 points in the third quarter, and in three minutes it’s a two-point game,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said after practice Monday. “And that’s happened to us a lot since the all-star break. But because you find a way to win the game by six or eight points, you don’t have a tendency to look at those things.”
Since returning from their all-star break in February, the Thunder have been anything but title-contender worthy. In that span, they have racked up a 3-6 record and have allowed every team but one to score more than 100 points.
But it’s the Thunder’s inability to hold onto leads that has really gotten them into trouble.
In losses last week to the Golden State Warriors and the Clippers, Oklahoma City saw late-game leads evaporate. This season alone, they have lost 10 games in which they entered the fourth quarter with a lead.
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Guard Dion Waiters said they need a more aggressive mindset.
“We always come out with a great sense of urgency, and we get up to a big lead, but sometimes we get lackadaisical and tend to get into chill mode,” Waiters said Monday. “When we come out and get a big lead, we just have to learn how to just step on they neck — just get it over with.”
The Thunder almost let it happen again during a Sunday afternoon contest in Milwaukee. After leading by 21 points with six minutes left in the third quarter, the Bucks closed to within two points before Oklahoma City pulled away late.
Donovan credits opponents’ comebacks to a lack of concentration by his team.
“It’s the turnovers. It’s the extra possessions of maybe missing a block out. It’s not generating good shots with ball movement,” Donovan said. “Our problem is sustaining good play when we have it and avoiding these self-induced lapses. We’ve worked too hard in a lot of those games to just give it away.”
Oklahoma City sits at third place in the Western Conference with just 19 games left on the schedule. The Clippers are charging after them, just two games behind entering this week.
The Thunder can do themselves some favors this week. Not only do they face the Clippers, but also Minnesota on Friday and a trip to San Antonio Saturday. By the time Sunday comes around, Oklahoma City could be in fourth place in the conference, which would set up a second-round match up with Golden State. Or, they could put some distance between themselves and the teams currently chasing them.
Starting tonight, Thunder fans will see these final 19 games flesh out exactly what type of team they’re cheering for.
“I think the best thing for this team is adversity,” Donovan said last week, according to ESPN. “It needs adversity.”
