CHARLOTTE – Victor Oladipo splashed a three-pointer from the top of the key with 3:59 to go on a dish from Russell Westbrook, making it a 105-104 Charlotte Hornets lead at the start of crunch time. On the road against a strong opponent, within a one possession striking distance with a chance to win is right where NBA team would like to be.
Unfortunately for the Thunder, the next four minutes didn’t shake out right. Charlotte got two huge offensive rebounds that not only turned into points but also evaporated seconds off the game clock during a decisive 9-0 Hornets run that snapped the game open for good. Nicolas Batum scored on a driving layup, Kemba Walker got to the rim on a backdoor cut and then Batum knocked down a tough wing three-pointer with 2:21. The foul game began from there, and the Thunder fell to 21-15 on the season with a 123-112 loss on Wednesday night.
“In the fourth quarter, there were some opportunities there where it was a two-or-three point game and we gave them too many second chance opportunities,” Head Coach Billy Donovan said. “We had a hard time finishing and scoring. We took it to the basket strong. I’ll be anxious to see the film.”
“We gave us a lot of second chance points and offensive rebounds and that hurt us at the end of the game,” echoed shooting guard and Charlotte native Anthony Morrow.
Batum’s three wasn’t the only one that went down for Charlotte on the night. In fact, the Hornets made six of its 13 three-point attempts in the first half, with three coming from Frank Kaminsky and Spencer Hawes, who both came in shooting sub-30 percent from behind the arc. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist hit a few non-paint two-point jumpers, and the Hornets ended up shooting 46.3 percent from the field as a team.
“You can’t really go by (the statistics), you have to go by the flow of the game,” Morrow explained. “Michael Kidd-Gilchrist made a couple jump shots. The scouting report is to close short on him, but he made a couple of them.”
“They take a lot of threes,” Donovan added. “They’re not a prolific percentage shooting team, but anytime a team shoots the ball, anything can happen. Kaminsky hurt us in the first half shooting the ball.”
The Thunder managed to hang in there, however, because of some offensive firepower of its own. Steven Adams showed incredible tenacity and strength around the basket in the first half and Enes Kanter bulldozed his way to the rim in the second half as the ‘Stache Brothers combined to shoot 16-for-23 from the field for a total of 40 points to go with 20 rebounds as a duo.
“Enes, in that second half he did a great job of getting the ball deep. He got it in front of the rim,” lauded Donovan. “Enes took the ball to the basket strong. We got the ball to good areas of the floor. We had some good looks.”
Westbrook and Oladipo each had sub-par shooting nights, going just 17-for-51 combined from the field as Oladipo chipped in 18 points, three rebounds and five assists and Westbrook finished with 33 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists and two steals, along with an 11-for-13 mark from the free throw line. Speaking of which, the charity stripe was likely the biggest difference in the game. The Thunder knocked down 19-of-23 attempts, while the Hornets went to the line 49 times, making 40 of them – the most for a Thunder opponent ever. With that many chances to score the ball with the clock stopped, the Thunder was going uphill all night.
“Our defense was not that bad. What was bad is that we got hurt on a lot of second chance point opportunities and we fouled too much,” Donovan explained. “It was probably a little bit uncharacteristic for our team to send somebody to the free throw line 49 times and us only get there 23. That was really hard to overcome.”
Thunder-Hornets Highlights:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By the Numbers
16-for-23 – Combined shooting numbers for Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, who collaborated for a total of 40 points and 20 rebounds
30-10 – The Thunder’s advantage in fast break points on the night
49 – Free throws attempted by the Hornets, including 40 made free throws, the most for an opponent in Thunder history- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Last Word
“You put yourself in position to win throughout the whole game and not to close it out is tough, but we have to keep our heads up. It’s going to be a long month for us on the road. We have to be ready to play.” – point guard Russell Westbrook