In last night’s game against the Timberwolves, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked as good as they’ve looked in quite some time. Enes Kanter dominated in second-chance attempts, Dion Waiters went 5-8 on three pointers, and Russell Westbrook went on a tear and scored 37 (23 of which were in the first quarter). Kanter, Waiters and Westbrook combined for 95 points, and together the team scored a whopping 138 points.
It wasn’t enough.
I mean, of course it was enough to publicly pummel the wounded Wolves by a margin of 25 points (it’s not every day you beat an opponent who scores 113 points by an additional 25), but it wasn’t enough to get the Thunder into the playoffs. The Thunder kicked off this season with a 3-12 record before getting things on track, but the track this year felt more like an off-road path. Down the home stretch the Thunder went 1-6 by losing to the Jazz, the Mavericks, the Grizzlies, the Rockets, and the Spurs (twice). With three games left in the season the Thunder lost a crucial game to the Pacers (who themselves were battling for a playoff spot) after going 11-28 on free-throws, roughly what my son shoots in our driveway.
The Thunder entered the last two games of the season tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for the final playoff slot. When your chances of making the playoffs depend on another team losing rather than your team winning, perhaps don’t deserve to be there in the first place — especially when that same team beat you three times during the regular season. With the taste of bile in my throat I quietly rooted for the Spurs to poach the Pelicans in the same manner they had recently tripped up the Thunder, but it didn’t happen. Both OKC and New Orleans won their last two games, and as they say, the tie goes to the pelican. (Nobody really says that, but everybody should start.)
I’m not sure much good would have come from making it to the playoffs. There was talk of Serge returning to the court, but walking into the playoff arena cold after returning from an injury is a good way to re-injure yourself. Without KD there’s no hope of winning it all, and frankly right now the odds weren’t good for escaping the first round against the top ranked Golden State Warriors. And you have to think that if Russell Westbrook turned up the gas any hotter he may literally break himself in half trying to single-handedly win playoff games.
Westbrook scored more points than any other player in the NBA this season. His response to that was “it means nothing,” and he’s right. Westbrook, like the rest of us, will be sitting at home watching the playoffs. (You have to think Westbrook has a nicer couch than the rest of us.) Westbrook takes a lot of crap for “being a ball hog” as we used to say when we were kids, but this year he didn’t have much of a choice. With Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka rooting from the sidelines most of the season, Westbrook’s options were to keep shooting or dish assists to new faces we’re just now getting used to calling Thunder players. When forced to the spotlight, some players thrive (James Harden) while others have wilted (Reggie Jackson), but if there was any question as to why the Thunder keep Westbrook when they have Durant, go back and watch last night’s game against the Timberwolves again.
(And if there was any question as to why the team parted ways with Perkins, as much as I liked the guy, go check out Kanter’s stats again.)
A lot of teams have what they call “rebuilding years.” This wasn’t a rebuilding year. It was a good year that unfortunately had a lot of great players cheering on the sidelines. The new pieces of the puzzle that fit with what we do — Kanter, Waiters, Singler — combined with the (hopefully returning) Thunder veterans are going to take this team to the playoffs and hopefully the finals very soon.
Thanks to Anthony Slater and Darnell Mayberry of the Thunder Buddies Podcast for giving us insight to the team and season and Dustbury.com (go for the Thunder commentary, stay for the rest of the amazing content) for his post-game analysis. I’ll be looking for you guys in the fall.
Thunder up and out.
