Bombs Away: Thunder Searching for Answers on Defense

With eight players out with various injuries Wednesday, the Oklahoma City Thunder traveled to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves for the second time in less than a week.

And unfortunately for the Thunder the result wasn’t much different from their matchup six days prior in OKC.

The Thunder fell 132-102 in a near-identical defeat to the 138-101 game the week before — surrendering 22 made 3-pointers on 42%+ shooting from behind the arc.

Wednesday’s loss was the fourth-straight game in which OKC has conceded 20 or more 3-pointers — leading to its worst four-game stretch defensively this season. Only one Thunder opponent crossed the 20 3-pointer threshold in the 62 games prior — Golden State (21) on Oct. 30.

Defending the 3-point line has been the largest of many problems for OKC as the injuries on its roster have begun to pile up. Losing its premier perimeter defenders in Lu Dort and Kenrich Williams has had a ripple effect throughout the team.

These recent performances, paired with the injuries that have happened along the way, have seen the Thunder free-fall in overall defensive rankings. OKC went into the All-Star break eighth in defensive rating at 108.6 — vastly overperforming its league standing. But that number has ballooned to 121.1 since — good for 28th in the NBA.

In Wednesday’s loss Malik Beasley set a Timberwolves game-high with 11 made 3-pointers. The crazy thing is that wasn’t the first time something like that happened in this stretch. On March 6 Bojan Bogdanovic set the Jazz franchise record with 11 of his own in a 116-103 win in Utah.

The problem for OKC is it’s hard to see how this issue truly gets resolved for the final 16 games of the season. Dort will miss the remainder of the season following a surgery to repair a torn Labrum, and it is unclear when Williams could make a return, leaving the Thunder short handed and playing a bench unit primarily composed of G Leaguers.

The Thunder’s next game will be Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, so watch out to see if Jaren Jackson Jr. breaks his own franchise record of nine 3-pointers.

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