Durant-less Thunder struggle against Sacramento, 116-104

BOX SCORE

After eight minutes, it was 31-14. Marco Belinelli knocked down a midrange jumper. 31-16.

Then Russell Westbrook committed an offensive foul, and subbed out.

The Kings scored the next 15 points. 31-31.

From the point of Westbrook’s foul, the Kings outscored the Thunder 100-73. The defense was a mess, the offense was scrambled, and with Westbrook shooting just 6-23 with seven turnovers, the Thunder eventually ran out of ideas.

I’d really rather not mention it, but without Kevin Durant, the Thunder appeared to sort of lose not just their identity, but a lot of confidence, too. They started looking around to Westbrook to just DO SOMETHING, with Serge Ibaka hesitating on open looks, Anthony Morrow unable to shake free, and basically the rest of the cast lost. Cameron Payne was the lone fourth quarter spark, playing with some confidence and fire, but it wasn’t enough with the hole the Thunder were in.

There were a few moments where they flirted with making a comeback, like when it was 108-100 with three minutes to go. Ibaka had a wide open straightaway look from 3, but hesitated on it — twice — before forcing it to Westbrook who forced up a 3 of his own. That play was pretty indicative of what went wrong.

Oh, and the defense. That went wrong for basically the final 40 minutes. The Thunder couldn’t guard DeMarcus Cousins, couldn’t guard Belinelli, couldn’t guard Rajon Rondo, and couldn’t guard Darren Collison. They failed to get back in transition over and over, and it eventually added up to the Kings putting distance between the Thunder and holding them off.

Obviously without Durant, things get difficult for the Thunder. It’s the reality of basketball without your star, and while you can draw judgments about the supporting cast, fact is, you’re just not the same group without your guy. The shame is, with all the winnable games ahead it appeared the Thunder had a chance to rattle off a number of wins. Instead, out of those next 17 ahead before traveling to Oakland, they’re 0-1.

NOTES:

• Enes Kanter: three points and one rebound in 16 minutes. Complete no show.

• Dion Waiters had a decent game against the Hornets. He did not have a decent game tonight. Just five points on 1-7 in 19 minutes.

• Waiters’ last seven games: 13-48. He’s had a bunch of one-bucket games. Outside of that Hornets game, he’s been really bad.

• Donovan on Waiters: “It’s been probably a week or two where he’s had a hard time shooting the ball and we have to do some way , or at least I do, try to help him find his rhythm. Because I do think he’s doing so many things trying to help in terms of moving the ball, trying to play defense, a lot of times taking on a difficult assignment defensively.”

• More Donovan: “I think Dion is giving us some really good defense, he’s focusing on that. I know that Dion, for him, I know he has a lot of confidence in himself. I think sometimes, and I’m not making excuses for him, but I think sometimes when there’s a period of time he doesn’t get a shot, he’s not in rhythm. Those things are tough when you’re trying to get him to go to the basket a little more and get to the line. He’s been trying to do some of that. I thought the shots he took tonight were pretty good. He had a couple late clock situations, they were long 2s, I don’t necessarily like those early in the clock.”

• Westbrook is serious about this no techs thing. He got a bad call on him on a reach in in the third quarter and wanted to erupt. He grabbed the ball, slapped it, and stopped himself three times from going at Danny Crawford. 

• Oh, remember when Waiters was making 3s earlier in the season? Yeah, that made him slightly better.

• Billy Donovan appeared on track to get his first technical, but Westbrook — !!! — stepped in. Westbrook was saying, “We good! We good!” while waving off Donovan. It didn’t matter, though, because Nick Collison ended up picking up one anyway.

• A couple minutes later, Morrow picked one up. Suffice to say, the Thunder weren’t stoked about the officiating tonight.

• Mitch McGary played a random two minutes in the first half.

• This was the first win for the Kings ever in Oklahoma City. They were 0-16 all-time in OKC, including two losses to the Hornets.

• Marco Belinelli and Darren Collison did rock-paper-scissors to see who would shoot the technical free throw. Belinelli won. And missed.

• Outside of foul trouble, Steven Adams played a solid game. He, like everyone, had issues with Cousins, but Adams was the best defender on him. It’s just he couldn’t not foul Cousins. And some of that wasn’t his fault.

• Ibaka was aggressive looking for his shot and had a nice game — 25 points on 10-17 — but he definitely didn’t trust himself later in the game. He turned down a number of good looks. Donovan noted it postgame, and said while he appreciates the unselfishness, would like to see Ibaka step into those.

• Donovan on missing Durant: “You’re going to have injuries. I had enough confidence in the rest of these guys. I thought Anthony Morrow stepped up in that starting role and gave us a really good game and played well. I think that we, certainly from an offensive standpoint without a great shooting night, we still scored 104 points. Give them credit defensively, but I think both teams had 60-something points so it wasn’t a lack of necessarily scoring, it was more probably transition defense caused us a problem and then the fouling.”

• Morrow did do a decent Durant impression: 20 points in 34 minutes on 8-11 shooting. At times, it looks like Morrow could drop 40 any time.

Next up: Home against the Grizzlies on Wednesday