After Steven Adams’ tip-in at the buzzer didn’t count, the Oklahoma City Thunder lost game two of a seven-game series against the Dallas Mavericks. If you grew up in Oklahoma City, you know one thing our fans and some media members do after a loss, panic and exaggerate. As I left press row, at the top of section 103 in the Chesapeake Energy Arena, I passed a fan and heard, “man f— Billy Donovan, he needs to be fired.” Assuming this guy was drunk and upset with the loss, I didn’t think too much about it, but throughout the next day I heard many fans and local media…even national media analyzing yesterday’s loss, which I know they are paid to do.
Well, I’m not paid for this blog so I am going to just tell you how it is, in a less deep and suspenseful type of way.
Oklahoma City’s loss is primarily due to Kevin Durant’s worst shooting night of his career, shooting 7-33 from the field for 21 points. The team didn’t shoot too well either at 33.7 percent. Another thing is Billy Donovan not making adjustments that we as fans and media members think that he should make, but there’s always something you could have done in a loss.
Personally, once KD’s struggles were clear as day, I would’ve looked to bring Anthony Morrow off the bench. Morrow only played 10 minutes in the game and scored 7 points on 2-4 shooting. He didn’t get many opportunities to score the ball, but based on his play as of late, he would have had a decent game…at least better than Kevin’s.
It’s okay, though, no worries in OKC. It took a historically bad game from our star player for Dallas to beat us by one point. So technically, if Durant goes 8-33 instead of 7-33, they win the game. Expect game three in Dallas to be another convincing win. Maybe not quite like game one but somewhere in between that and game two.
“It was a bad shooting night for me. It is a part of it. I wish it didn’t happen tonight, but it is a part of it. I got some great looks all night and just didn’t knock them down. I’ll stick with my routine, not do too much extra, go out there tomorrow and get ready for practice. It is one of those nights.”
-Kevin Durant on his attitude after last night’s game.
“You constantly keep feeding him. He is the best player in the world. He has nights like that. My job is to be able to find him, find a way to get him easy baskets. Like you said, he missed easy ones tonight, but I know Kevin. I’ve been with him for too long. That won’t happen again.”
-Russell Westbrook on what they did during the game to try and keep Kevin going.
“Just lock in. I think we will go back to the drawing board, look at the film, and see what we can get better at doing on the road. This is a series: the first team to four. We have won in Dallas before. We will go in with a positive mindset and try to take care of business.”
-Russell on what is important for them in the next two days to prepare for playing in Dallas.