Game Day: Thunder (29-20) @ Suns (20-27), Fri 1/31/20

[Gladiator]

Oh well. I guess we'll just take it. Chalk another one up to the refs doing whatever the f*** they want with no accountability.

Not sure we can blame the refs for this one. Our dumb mistakes were much more influential, also OKC defence to be fair

Irregardless, make the right call. Lots of teams blow leads and win at the end by making good plays. Oubre made a smart, quick play to catch OKC off guard and the refs blew it. Is that okay though because we made dumb mistakes earlier?

It was a bad call, a wrong call and I'm sure it will be noted in the (frankly pointless) NBA 2-minute report. However, even if they called it correctly, Oubre didn't have the ball off the rebound, let alone made the basket, which would have only tied the game, not won it for us.
The call felt more like rubbing salt into the wound, rather than a reason for the loss (to me anyway).

[Drewsprocket]

Overall I have to say the Thunder had more players contributing meaningfully than the Suns. All five of their starting 5 plus Schroeder fought. Suns had 3 players offensively contributing. Their D was good but didn’t have anyone else to fight. Not to mention the offensive boards they gave up which Suns gonna probably lose regardless.

[djy2j]

Dumbest team in the league. Ayton was absolutely comatose all game. Bridges shot has a bigger hitch than ever. This franchise...

[JeremyG]

Oh well. I guess we'll just take it. Chalk another one up to the refs doing whatever the f*** they want with no accountability.

Not sure we can blame the refs for this one. Our dumb mistakes were much more influential, also OKC defence to be fair

Irregardless, make the right call. Lots of teams blow leads and win at the end by making good plays. Oubre made a smart, quick play to catch OKC off guard and the refs blew it. Is that okay though because we made dumb mistakes earlier?

It was a bad call, a wrong call and I'm sure it will be noted in the (frankly pointless) NBA 2-minute report. However, even if they called it correctly, Oubre didn't have the ball off the rebound, let alone made the basket, which would have only tied the game, not won it for us.
The call felt more like rubbing salt into the wound, rather than a reason for the loss (to me anyway).

I think Oubre stopped trying to get the ball when he heard the whistle. But it should have been a jump ball probably.

[ShelC]

Dumbest team in the league. Ayton was absolutely comatose all game. Bridges shot has a bigger hitch than ever. This franchise...

Did Ayton ask any of the reporters how to spell "Dominayton" after the game?

Had it with Bricks too. Classic mistake drafting a really good college player who can't score in the league. A dime a dozen swingman who can't shoot. And don't tell me about his defense or his 5 man unit #s. He's cost us games because he can't put the ball in the basket at all. You can find 10 Mikal's in every draft, probably another 20 more in the GLeague.

[LazarusLong]

Eddie Johnson halfway through the third quarter:
"Wow, confetti should be dropping from the ceiling ..."
Kevin Ray:
"Uh, yeah ...?"
EJ:
"Ayton just got his first rebound of the game with about 18 minutes left ..."

[LazarusLong]

This was a game they should have won.
They had OKC down 35-27 in the second with the Thunder is disarray.
Instead, sloppy ball handling and quick trays let OKC back in the game.

[Split T]

Dumbest team in the league. Ayton was absolutely comatose all game. Bridges shot has a bigger hitch than ever. This franchise...

Did Ayton ask any of the reporters how to spell "Dominayton" after the game?

Had it with Bricks too. Classic mistake drafting a really good college player who can't score in the league. A dime a dozen swingman who can't shoot. And don't tell me about his defense or his 5 man unit #s. He's cost us games because he can't put the ball in the basket at all. You can find 10 Mikal's in every draft, probably another 20 more in the GLeague.

Well in the suns defense, he was a high volume, high efficiency 3 pt shooter throughout college. I think it’s reasonable for them to have expected more from him offensively when we drafted him. We didn’t spend 2 1sts to draft a defensive only wing who can’t shoot.

I still like Bridges, I’m holding out hope that his shot mechanics are just a work in progress and will eventually pay off. In the meantime, he does still do a lot of nice things for us. It’s just hard to focus on those when he has a glaring weakness.

[Mori Chu]

Frustrating loss. I like a lot of our players, but it feels like on any given night we just don't have enough guys who play well and have good games. Tonight Oubre, Ayton, Booker showed up. We got some nice minutes from Ty Jerome and Tyler Johnson off the bench. But otherwise almost everybody had a crappy game. Rubio has been pretty bad lately; I assume it's the fatigue of being a new father. If we just had more of our guys on the same page and playing well, we would be able to cruise to victory in games like these.

I miss Cam Johnson; I like what he brings lately more than what Bridges has been bringing. I'm a Bridges fan but if he can't shoot, I don't know why we should play him or even keep him on the roster. Cam at least is a dead-eye 3-point shooter, which makes me think he should start getting those minutes. And I do think we should be starting Saric; he doesn't seem to respond well to the bench role we are trying out for him.

I'll take the positives from this game being Oubre's impressive performance (really he's had a great season, doing everything we could hope for from him and more), and the good minutes from Ty Jerome. Flush, rinse, move on.

Here's the box score:

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401161367

[djy2j]

Eddie Johnson halfway through the third quarter:
"Wow, confetti should be dropping from the ceiling ..."
Kevin Ray:
"Uh, yeah ...?"
EJ:
"Ayton just got his first rebound of the game with about 18 minutes left ..."

Yeah that was some awesome shade EJ was throwing at him. Rightfully so. Teammates were visibly frustrated with his effort on defense a few times also

He’s been calling dudes out more lately...rightfully so. I’ve noticed he’s been on Rubio more lately. All the sudden Rubio can’t pass worth a shit. I’m not sure where his playmaking skills went to. He also has been playing into other teams game plan by settling for jumpers a lot. No arched jumpers at that.

[djy2j]

Also we’re probably down at least one more body (Saric) and maybe Tyler Johnson. I think it’s a horrible idea to start a road trip with just 8 available guys. I’m curious to see how Jones responds here. Especially since it doesn’t seem like any of the guys who are already out are coming back soon.

Our G-League guys are both guards and I don’t know if Tariq Owens still exists or what.

Do something.

[Split T]

They signed Owens to a two-way...probably time to bring him up.

[INFORMER]

Dumbest team in the league. Ayton was absolutely comatose all game. Bridges shot has a bigger hitch than ever. This franchise...

Did Ayton ask any of the reporters how to spell "Dominayton" after the game?

Had it with Bricks too. Classic mistake drafting a really good college player who can't score in the league. A dime a dozen swingman who can't shoot. And don't tell me about his defense or his 5 man unit #s. He's cost us games because he can't put the ball in the basket at all. You can find 10 Mikal's in every draft, probably another 20 more in the GLeague.

I share your frustrations, but I don't necessarily agree with your assessment of Bridges.

Drafting him was problematic because he has a low ceiling and because they invested TWO 1st rounders in him. The other issue was what seems to be Jimmy Jones' philosophy: it's better to draft players who are as close to 25 as possible, because, you know, they're NBA-ready.

Mikal has some terrific tools, and I hope he puts it all together.

[LazarusLong]

I was in favor of the Suns drafting SGA instead of Bridges, but I still have hopes Bridges can put it together consistently.
Even when his offensive games is non-existent, he's the best defender out there for Phoenix.

[iLLmatic]

Overall I have to say the Thunder had more players contributing meaningfully than the Suns. All five of their starting 5 plus Schroeder fought. Suns had 3 players offensively contributing. Their D was good but didn’t have anyone else to fight. Not to mention the offensive boards they gave up which Suns gonna probably lose regardless.

We could've used more offensive production from Bridges.

[Drewsprocket]

Overall I have to say the Thunder had more players contributing meaningfully than the Suns. All five of their starting 5 plus Schroeder fought. Suns had 3 players offensively contributing. Their D was good but didn’t have anyone else to fight. Not to mention the offensive boards they gave up which Suns gonna probably lose regardless.

We could've used more offensive production from Bridges.

Totally, his shot is gonna take time. Rubio and Bridges were exposed in our starting five on offense. Defensively we were rolling but lost both on the 50/50 balls and boards.
More importantly we could have rode all that out but we need a secondary ball handler or shot maker off the bench. JJ is waisting time acting making a move for the 8th spot doesn’t matter. Where’s our Lou Williamson, or Patty Mills, or Van Fleet, Dragic? There was just no way we were gonna win without a bench player going off. No Cam, Saric, Kaminsky, Baynes- that’s rough!

[Indy]

You know what, us fans deserved this loss for booing Chris Paul all game. WTF? And he just made us pay.

Oh, and I know Ayton ended with an OK stat line, but he was basically a ghost for over half the game, and I think 3 of his rebounds came on a single possession where he kept missing layups. And did you see how he just stood there on that Kelly intentional missed FTA? Watch the replay and marvel at how he doesn't move a foot or even his arms to try and box out. It is really crazy to watch.

[Indy]

Dumbest team in the league. Ayton was absolutely comatose all game. Bridges shot has a bigger hitch than ever. This franchise...

Did Ayton ask any of the reporters how to spell "Dominayton" after the game?

Had it with Bricks too. Classic mistake drafting a really good college player who can't score in the league. A dime a dozen swingman who can't shoot. And don't tell me about his defense or his 5 man unit #s. He's cost us games because he can't put the ball in the basket at all. You can find 10 Mikal's in every draft, probably another 20 more in the GLeague.

I share your frustrations, but I don't necessarily agree with your assessment of Bridges.

Drafting him was problematic because he has a low ceiling and because they invested TWO 1st rounders in him. The other issue was what seems to be Jimmy Jones' philosophy: it's better to draft players who are as close to 25 as possible, because, you know, they're NBA-ready.

Mikal has some terrific tools, and I hope he puts it all together.

He hasn't been pulling his weight because his offense is so bad. And yeah, spending two first round picks on a 3&D guy that only has the D is not the way to build a team. I think he has the work effort and basketball ability to put it all together, but I think it will take another offseason before we start to see his offense come around even a little.

[Gladiator]

Frustrating loss. I like a lot of our players, but it feels like on any given night we just don't have enough guys who play well and have good games. Tonight Oubre, Ayton, Booker showed up. We got some nice minutes from Ty Jerome and Tyler Johnson off the bench. But otherwise almost everybody had a crappy game. Rubio has been pretty bad lately; I assume it's the fatigue of being a new father. If we just had more of our guys on the same page and playing well, we would be able to cruise to victory in games like these.

Don’t agree with your assessment on Ayton. I was really disappointed with the way he let OKC’s bigs set the tone early with rebounding and general desperation/physicality.

[Superbone]

Winning this game would be significant if only because they usually can't pull out these close ones.

Unfortunately, that's still the case.