The progress Oklahoma City has made the last two seasons has been very impressive. Last season, after a 23 win season the year before, the Thunder nearly pushed the eventual champion Lakers to a seventh game in their first round playoff series.
Flash forward to this postseason. The Thunder defeated the Denver Nuggets in five games in the first round, and the team showed plenty of toughness and maturity in the conference semifinals, defeating the Memphis Grizzlies in a tough seven game series. The team is now making its first appearance in the conference finals since 1996, going back to the franchise’s days in Seattle.
Despite their youth and shortage of experience in the postseason, the Thunder have had very few instances where it has shown.
However, there was a three possession sequence in Game 3 against Dallas on Saturday night where I felt the Thunder’s youth and inexperience was especially glaring. Here is the breakdown:
1) With three minutes left in he fourth quarter, and the Thunder down by six points, Russell Westbrook heaves a three-pointer that misses terribly, six seconds into the shot clock.
2) After forcing a Nowitzki miss, the Thunder have yet another chance to cut the deficit to four or even three points. Daequan Cook then shoots a three-pointer of his own, which barely draws iron. Once again, six seconds into the shot clock.
3) Oklahoma City gets their third consecutive stop on the defensive end. Maybe the third time will be the charm. Instead, Russell Westbrook throws the ball to the guy sitting in the front row of the stands. This time, five seconds into the shot clock.
On the next Dallas possession, Jason Terry drains a long two pointer, extending the lead to eight with 1:42 left. The Thunder were thinking more with their hearts than their heads during that three possession sequence. The crowd was going crazy, feeding off the big comeback the team had made. The Thunder were looking for that big shot that would have sent the crowd into hysterics, instead of passing the ball around and looking for a better look.
What is even more discouraging for OKC fans is Kevin Durant didn’t touch the ball during any one of the three possessions. Which is inexcusable.
It looks as though the Thunder have a few growing pains to go through after all.
Joshua Sexton is a lifelong basketball fanatic, who watches as many games as possible. In addition, He has played and coached the game at the high school level. He has recently started writing about the game of basketball.
