OKC Thunder STOMPED by Timberwolves | What ALL Went WRONG? | How It Changes
Oklahoma City Thunder suffer a blowout loss as the Minnesota Timberwolves dominate both ends of the floor. With stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posting efficient numbers but the team struggling in every other area, are cracks showing in the Thunder’s championship ambitions?
Rylan Stiles analyzes the Thunder’s loss, pinpointing poor offense, lackluster defense, and the absence of key players such as Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso. Key topics include Oklahoma City’s alarming drop in intensity, Minnesota’s stifling defense, and the growing concerns surrounding team identity and effort in crucial regular season moments. With the playoff race tightening and the trade deadline approaching, can the Thunder regain their edge or will this become a troubling trend? Don’t miss this critical breakdown of whether Oklahoma City can reclaim their contender status.
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31 Comments
I'm a spurs fan. Came here after the 3-0 series to see your view point. I stayed for your honesty and unbiasted analysis.😉 The guy on lock on spurs is a joke …
Glad to see them starting to get humbled. Bc my god the way jdub talks sometimes is crazy. But the obvious flaws of the team stand out. They can’t shoot. They’ve over shot what they actually are. And now that they are falling to the mean in shooting it’s made them worse defensively.
Sga and the burgers
I'm not watching no more until we get all our players back from injury, or we make a nice trade or too.
They are started losing when other teams play like them.
TWolves are a great shooting team at home, they proved it.
Dieng and 4th Stringers cut it to 13 deficit.
A trade now is not going to do much, you need bigger trades and big retooling in the Offseason to combat the lethargy in general!
Minnesota is a much better Hornets team, they can get red hot in a jiff……
Without all nba Jay Will
This roster is so full of mid overrated "do it all but nothing, really" players.
Chet is up and down. Harst is only a starting cliber center and thats good not great.
Caruso and Dort play one side.
The rest is just mid carried by the top dogs.
CONSOLIDATE. Trade for more talent. WIN NOW. You never know when an achilles would ruin your franchise.
Shai can’t be the only person scoring.
Jdub was that person last year but with the injuries we gotta turn some place else.
Chet is a f*cking choker… sorry not sorry.
We HAVE to rebound on the defensive boards too.
I don’t know how many times I see teams get 2-3-4 chances to score.
League has figured out how to beat this team. Period
There is no excuse for the Thunder today. The Wolves looked like they were the Thunder. That was the Thunders game. National TV, so embarrassing. The didnt even look like a pro team. They need Ajay back big time! Trade JDubs expensive contract with Dieng and picks to get offense. Shai shouldnt have to play with amateurs.
OKC are 1-6 in games without Ajay Mitchell if my counting is correct
If you are ice cold on 3's, stop trying and head for the paint. Why do people finish 2 for 12 on 3's? In the paint you might get a foul chance at least.
Minn was playing off a back to back with 4 games and 5 days. They brought their energy. The Thunder did not. Not showing up for a national TV game is just shameful. They really miss Ajay.
Love the honesty. This was definitely a different type of game. I wish I’d see more adjustments/accountability from the coach
🤦🏾♂️😒😫😖🤦🏾♂️😣😩😒🤦🏾♂️
13:54 FACTS!!!!!!!
🦬🌩️🥶🔶🏆🔶🥶🌩️🦬
⚡️⚡️THUNDER🆙⚡️⚡️
We have no 3 point defense, plain and simple. Every team we play shoots 5 to 10% better than their 3pt avg against us.
Thunder had some clean 3pt looks, but the offense aside from SGA is inconsistent. Also, Minn is always motivated against OKC
Minneapolis needed this win ❤
Once again, I wish I had someone as grounded, insightful and anchored to reality as you, to listen to, as it relates to the Spurs. Keep up the good work.
I’m 🔒 on THUNDER
Every loss of the foul baiter and Lu Dirtys team is a win for humanity, thank you Minnesota Timberwolves
We need more offense we can’t make any three point shots it’s been like that for a couple of years now SGA can’t be the only scoring option and Chet just disappears when need shooters
Minnesota played several games without top players. Injuries happen in the NBA that is a given. Minnesota can play OKC when in full team mode. OKC without the flopping free throws are good but not beatable.
The Thunder got away with a style of defense last year that won’t be tolerated anymore. You cannot referee a game where one team is allowed to maul and the other gets called for touching a guys elbow during a drive. Once the calls even out, OKC is a below average team that can sometimes shoot above their pay grade. So many players on the Thunder wouldn’t even see the floor on other teams like Cason Wallace and Isiah Joe. They are both borderline G league players that only are playable when they aren’t getting called for fouls.
Great and refreshing pod. One area for criticism that wasn’t touched on was coaching. Now I’m not a Mark doomer, I think he’s a great coach, and the coach for this team as long as possible. But there is room to grow and we’re seeing it.
At every level of sports, lack of effort, lack of focus is rightly laid at the coaches feet. And even with all of the legitimate excuses for why this team hasn’t been playing their best, most of these games are still right there. I think it’s fair to say that if we had 10-15% more effort over this last month and a half, we have 4-6 less losses.
There’s also two simple things that would dramatically help. 1. Shai needs to start the game much more aggressively. Now it’s hard to put any blame on Shai when he is pretty much the only bright spot, but I think his unaggressive starts to games has been really damaging. Not only does it put us in a hole almost immediately, but it lets the other teams smell blood in the first quarter. It lets them gain confidence, and play with a lead. And our team has proven that this year, they’re not super interested in fighting hard enough to come back from double digit deficits, especially when they happen in the first half. I don’t have the numbers but I feel like last year, Shai would regularly have close to or more than 10 points by the end of the 1sr quarter. He would be aggressive, and we would be the team that jumps out to a big lead, that gains momentum and forces teams to try and claw back into the game. And that was infectious, it would give us more energy on defense, more confidence on shots, and it would be a positive snowball. It’s a big part of why we won 68 games despite also dealing with significant injuries. This season, especially this stretch, it’s like Shai is saving energy for the second half, which is sending a discouraging message to the team. And I put this mostly on Mark. Stop messing with his rotations, Shai clearly thrives off of consistency, and messing with his routine, while also saying to the team “I’m not confident we’re going to win this game” just starts every game on the wrong foot. He should also be telling Shai to start the game aggressively for these very reasons. The team gains confidence when Shai is playing well, not the other way around. This lack of confidence permeates the team and I think is a big factor in our poor shooting.
Which is the other simple reason for these losses. If this team just freaking shoots at league average over the last month and a half, we have way fewer losses. It really is that simple, if the role players could just hit their shots, the floor would open for Shai, we would be playing with more leads, we would have more energy of defense etc. it’s all connected. They have got to shoot the ball better. We are failing so badly at capitalizing on open 3s and opposing team know it. They don’t care. They can completly sell out to stop Shai and it is working. And again, with it all being connected, I put that on Mark for not forcing the issue and making Shai be way more aggressive in the first quarter, for messing with his rotations.
We aren’t going into these games with the confidence and swagger of a defending champion, we’re going into them like a team that’s already lost. That’s coaching. It’s the most important part of coaching that has nothing to do with X’s and O’s (I also think our offensive strategy has been really disappointing as well).
I do think a lot of these issues are naturally resolved by getting healthy, but could still very much bite us in the post season. We need our swagger back and the easiest way to do that is to get Shai cooking early, not when we’re already in the hole and shooting like trash while the other team is hot.
Thunder had good run. its over now
This team has been cheeks without a consistent second ball handler and our streaky shooters. It is a miracle in hindsight we won the chip last season. Some serious adjustments need to be made either in play style or the roster construction before season end if this team wants a legitimate shot of repeating in the playoffs. Lu Dort realistically needs to be traded or at least no longer a starter based on what we've seen this season.
Thunder Up!