OKC Thunder: Focus Should Remain on Final 12 Games After Blowout Loss
The Thunder remains in a prime position to finish with a top seed in the West.
The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a tough 118-93 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on the road on Sunday. An 18-3 run in the third quarter put the Thunder away. The run consisted of the Thunder being beat by the Bucks’ defense and physicality.
Evidently, the loss isn’t worth reading into too much. The Thunder falls to 49-21 with the loss, still tied with the least amount of losses in the Western Conference.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a perennial 30 points per game player, was held to just 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Stopping the All-NBA guard is one way for opposing teams to slow down the Thunder, and Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounnpo knows such.
"I think we just showed a lot of help. We know he's the head of the snake.” Antetokounmpo said after the game. “You see guys that average 30, 35. But he's also a willing passer. So that kind of helps you sometimes because he's gonna try to make the right play, he's not gonna force it.”
With Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder struggling in the loss, it’s easy to erase this game from memory. There’s no substantial takeaway, and this game is a complete outlier compared to the rest of the season.
Rising star Jalen Williams knows the focus shouldn’t stay on one game, and reassures that the team won’t harp on the loss.
"I don't think we're going to harp too much on the loss. I think we'll just kind of take some of the fundamental stuff from it and just be able to turn the page. I'd probably the same answer if we won this game,” Williams said after the loss.
Williams and the Thunder are incredibly mature for the youth they have. The mentality to throw this game out of the window and focus on the final 12 regular season games is key and will pay off when postseason basketball is being played.
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