Oklahoma City Unable to Overcome Sloppy Third Quarter to Beat the Heat
OKLAHOMA CITY — The best teams in the NBA will punish sloppy play.
The Oklahoma City Thunder (5-8) found that out first hand on Monday night, as the Miami Heat (9-5) took advantage of five third quarter turnovers to overpower the Thunder 103-90 at the Paycom Center.
Without stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the young Thunder core hoped to gain the upper hand on a Heat squad playing it’s fifth and final game of their early-season road swing.
Tyler Herro dashed those hopes for the most part, scoring 26 points and knocking down 5-of-8 shots from 3-point range, proving to be too much for OKC.
“I thought our defense tonight was pretty good,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after the game. “… A lot of Herro’s damage came in that third and I thought we really defended a lot of those plays, he was just flame-throwing.”
But for one half, the Thunder battled.
A 13-0 run by OKC in the first quarter and steady play from Lu Dort, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Josh Giddey saw the Thunder stay level with the Heat through halftime, keeping the game knotted up 43-43 at the break.
But the arrival of Duncan Robinson and the turnovers in the third quarter put the game out of reach for Miami.
Robinson knocked down three 3’s en route to 12 third quarter points for the Heat led Miami’s post-halftime barrage, outscoring the Thunder 31-24 in the period.
A quick 7-2 run by the Heat to start the fourth pushed the lead to 12, and Miami never looked back.
While Robinson and Herro put on an offensive show for the Heat, Oklahoma City’s primary option had an off night.
Even without Butler to spearhead the defense, Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled on Monday night.
Finishing with just 10 points, Gilgeous-Alexander shot 2-of-11 from the floor, adding there rebounds, five assists and three turnovers.
“Tonight there was a lot of double teams, heavy loads,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. “… Hats off to them for great defense.”
The Thunder star said he’s grown accustomed to teams throwing a lot of different looks at him, but it’s still something he has to improve on night-in and night-out.
“I’ve probably seen it before,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, “it’s probably something I need to get better at.”
Dort stepped up in the wake of Gilgeous-Alexander’s struggles, leading the Thunder with 20 points, adding four rebounds and dishing out three assists.
Former first-round pick Aleksej Pokusevski also gave the Thunder some nice minutes as well, looking as comfortable as he has all season long.
Pokusevski’s play both running in transition and from beyond the 3-point arc helped OKC pull within striking distance to close the third quarter, but it wasn’t enough to put OKC over the top against Miami.
“I thought he was good there in the third. He was ready to go coming out of halftime,” Daigneault said. “Played with more force, I thought he was pretty good defensively… That’s how we need him to play.”
The Serbian big finished with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, two rebounds and an assist.
“I was just trying to use open shots and make those and make a run for our team,” Pokusevski said after the game of his seven point third quarter run.
Robinson-Earl also had a nice night for OKC, adding 16 points, five rebounds and tw0 assists in his second straight start at center.
The Thunder will have one more chance to steal a win at home before hitting the road on Wednesday night, as they’ll conclude their four-game homestand against the Houston Rockets. Tip-off from the Paycom Center is slated for 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
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