Monday Rewind: Week of March 25-31

• At this point, does anyone want to rehash the last week of games?
• Here’s a quick summary for the masochists out there:

• Thunder Hit Rock Bottom, Grizzlies Win 115-103
• Thunder Catch Fire in 3rd Quarter, Beat Pacers 107-99
• Nuggets Complete Season Sweep, Top Thunder 115-105
• Thunder Can’t Get Stops, Fall to Mavericks 106-103

• I’m an optimist. I picked the Thunder to go 3-1 last week, thinking they had exercised some demons in the win against Toronto. But they’ve done it — they’ve beat me down. I saw this story last year and I know how it ends.
• What’s wrong with OKC? We will get to that in a bit. Let’s take some time to forget about basketball and focus on…

Everything Else

• Lots of shoe news last week. The WhyNot Zer0.2 Collection is growing and it looks like new colorways will soon be available to the public. Expect these four installments to drop in the near future:

• Any Pokemon fans out there? Russ paid respect to some of his favorites with these bad boys:

• How about these two guys at the game!? I absolutely love it. Full uniform, shooting sleeves. TBH, someone had to explain to me thatwasn’t actually Steven Adams and Russell Westbrook.

• Terrance Ferguson attempted this dunk:

• The Thunder actually pulled off a 24-0 run in that game with the Pacers. 24-0 against a real NBA team. That’s so incredibly impressive that it makes it even more hard to stomach when they underperform during all but fives minutes of the game lately.
• Despite this being one of the darkest weeks in Thunder history, Steven Adams was pretty great the last few games:
• vs. Indiana: 25 points (11-14), 12 rebounds | vs. Denver: 16 points (8-12), 5 rebound | vs. Dallas: 20 points (10-17), 15 rebounds

• Russell Westbrook received another technical. If it holds up (it shouldn’t), Russ will be one tech away from another one-game suspension.
• This one was weeeeeak, though. I’ll be shocked if it’s not rescinded.
• It’s not like he laughed and pointed in the face of the official.

What’s Wrong with the Thunder?

• I’m confident I’ve narrowed it down to a handful of problems. Pick one of these when you’re at the water cooler this week discussing just how bad the Thunder are as of late:
  • The Love’s Patch: The Thunder are 2-6 since the Thunder added a patch to the jerseys. Maybe the bright yellow is throwing off the court vision? Maybe the sheer size of the patch is weighing down the players? But my main theory here is you cannot put a bright yellow patch on the Fashion King’s uniforms and not expect their to be severe consequences. Are we going to ignore the fact that Russ has been pretty grumpy lately? You messed up his aesthetic and now we are paying for it.
  • Markieff Morris / Patrick Patterson: The All-Star break is what most point to as the turning point for this team… But what if it wasn’t? *dramatic music intensifies* The news broke the Thunder were going to sign Markieff Morris on February 14. If you recall, the Thunder were rolling the first half of February. They had just won four in a row (Orlando, Memphis, Houston, Portland). February 14th was the letdown against New Orleans the game before the All-Star Break. Anthony Davis played 15 minutes and we got, what seemed at the time, a very uncharacteristic loss for the Thunder. Patterson saw ZERO game minutes against the Pelicans. A trend we’ve seen continue since the addition of Morris.
  • Hamidou/Burton MIA: This one actually gets on my nerves. We’ve seen Hamidou Diallo and Deonte get some burn here or there, but the Thunder have consistently shown a lack of effort from tip to buzzer. Why not trot out one of these two more often to provide the spark? We saw it plenty of times during the first half of the season. While I really like Diallo’s ceiling in the future, I think Burton is a guy the Thunder could be using right now. He’s a wild man and has a lot to learn, but the Thunder could use a little “try hard” right now. He’s your guy.
  • Billy Donovan: I really like Billy D. I think he’s a good coach. But maybe he’s not the guy for this job? There’s definitely a sense of the players not being motivated the last two years. Is this a Billy issue or a culture issue within the players? Is it just going to be impossible to get through to Westbrook? Which leads me to the next possible problem…
  • Russell Westbrook: Stop it. Stop being friends with people who blame Russ. Don’t have this conversation. The Thunder aren’t trading this man and I think he has shown more than enough willingness to make things work with whoever he’s got on his team. He may act a certain way that rubs people the wrong way, but when it comes to his play/effort…it’s there.
  • We’re the problem: I think we are spoiled. The Thunder make the playoffs year after year. We continually expect them to be contenders and are pretty disappointed when they end up as less than that. There are a lot of other teams out there that would love to be in the Thunder’s position for just one year.
    • Let’s not act like there weren’t WAY too many Warriors fans when Golden State visited earlier this month. I even thought there were too many empty seats during this week’s game with Denver. Thunder fans love hearing how awesome Thunder fans are. Maybe they need to hold themselves to the same standard they hold the team to? Go to the game and cheer, or give your tickets to someone that will. (Please don’t get too mad at me. I realize there hasn’t been much to cheer about as of late.)
  • Paul George is hurt: This is probably it. I mean, the Thunder were just on a different planet when he was in MVPG mode earlier this season. The shoulder injuries seems to continue to pop up (he was questionable against Denver). I don’t expect him to be super nova like he was, but he’s shooting worse from 3-point than Westbrook since the All-Star break. That’s a true fact. Look it up.

Forecast:

• Do I think the Thunder can turn this around? Absolutely. They’ve shown us they are good, and they’ve showed it enough that I know it’s there. But do I have faith that they will? Meh. I’m predicting a 1-2 week from OKC.
• Loss vs. Lakers | 65% confidence | The Lakers will sign someone named Curtis Axel from the G-League and he will inevitably score 25+.
• Win vs. Pistons | 4% confidence | Russell Westbrook has a 40-point triple-double; gets into a verbal altercation with a service dog in the stands.
• Loss vs. Timberwolves | 90% confidence | You know how this one goes. Every. Single. Time.