It wasn't the time to have an off night, and yet that's what the Thunder experienced Tuesday in Las Vegas. Oklahoma City missed its NBA Cup final a bit, scoring only 81 points against the Bucks. This is the first time this season that the Thunder has scored less than 99 points this season! Dominated in aggression, the leader of the West did not lack opportunities to be more dangerous, but did not know how to take advantage of them as he has done so regularly since the start of the season.
You don't have to look very far to find a first reason for this large backhand, but especially for this very low total of points scored. The Thunder only shot 5/32 from 3-point range, including an awful 1/17 at the break. This despite some rather open positions. “ We have already shot badly in certain matches, and still won » said Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderauthor of a very average 8/24. “ This is not an excuse. » « I feel like we had decent shooting positions, but I could have done a better job of freeing up players in certain situations » commented Mark Daigneault.
Mark Daigneault considers himself mainly responsible for the defeat
The Thunder coach was quite critical of himself, taking responsibility for this setback. Daigneault notably pointed out this fatal third quarter, with only 14 points scored. “ When your team only scores 14 points in a quarter, the first thing you need to look at is a mirror » he reacted at a press conference. “ We're a good enough team, we should be able to create shots. So I take this defeat personally. The Bucks are big and they know how to concentrate in the paint. You can have shots in front of them, and if you put them in, it loosens their grip. Not getting in those shots caused them to come in for a two-on-one inside and make our lives even harder. »
As an immediate consequence of this glaring clumsiness, the Thunder were never able to create any dynamism in attack. Oklahoma City finished with only 13 assists, far, far from their habits or even their more difficult evenings, who had only fallen below 20 “assists” against Houston in the semi-final (19). “ We did good things, we scored more points than them in the paint so we did the job defensively in this sector » partially tempers Mark Daigneault. “ But it was obviously a complicated evening for us offensively, we didn't score enough points, especially in the second half, to give ourselves a chance of winning. »
Learning the hard way
Struggling to score, OKC also came across a gala Giannis Antetokounmpo opposite. It was too much to hope to hold off and win the first trophy in Thunder history. Still very young, the Oklahoma City team immediately wants to plan for the future, and sees this journey in the NBA Cup as new learning on the path to the title, after the exit in the playoffs against Dallas last season.
“ It was a high level opponent, in a high level match and it's a good experience for all of us » insists Mark Daigneault, while Jalen Williams also made similar comments to the media. “ We have 70% of the season left, it's important that we take a step back from this defeat. We played three high-stakes games this week with Dallas, Houston and tonight, and that's valuable experience for us. We must learn from this. But we can work from there and move forward. »
The schedule doesn't really leave much choice anyway, with a resumption on Thursday and a match against the Magic.
