The Oklahoma City Thunder road offensive woes continued in a 105-101 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
After being one of the best offenses in the league for the beginning of November, ranking fourth in offensive rating from Nov. 9 to Nov. 25, regression has begun to hit the Thunder.
The first sign came in Saturday’s blowout loss to the Houston Rockets. In the first three quarters, the Thunder scored 73 points on 40.8% shooting and shot 6-of-30 (20%) from 3.
Against the Pelicans, the Thunder shot 34-of-92 (37%) from the field and went 12-of-38 (31.6%) from outside.
The saving grace for the Thunder offense was their ability to get to the free-throw line. The Thunder went 21-of-23 (91.3%) from the charity stripe. Eighteen of the 23 free-throw attempts came from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is displaying a knack for drawing shooting fouls. He is the league leader in drives.
In fact, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only Thunder player who had any scoring mojo going. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 31 points; the rest of the starting lineup combined for 42 points. The next leading scorer for the Thunder was Lu Dort with 14 points.
Thankfully for the Thunder, the Pelicans also struggled to make shots, going 9-of-32 (28.1%) from 3. Zion Williamson led the way with 23 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Trey Murphy III scored 20 points and Jose Alvarado scored 15 points.
To highlight the night the Thunder had, Gilgeous-Alexander had a chance to tie or take the lead with 11 seconds left in a two-point deficit.
As he began to move his way around Herb Jones, the defensive-minded wing fell to the ground and Gilgeous-Alexander was called for a controversial charge after a lengthy discussion from the referees.
The call iced the game for the Pelicans and the Thunder lost their second-consecutive road game.
Poetically enough, the player who benefitted the most from the referee’s whistle tonight was robbed of a chance to win or tie the game. It just wasn’t the Thunder’s night.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.