The Oklahoma City Thunder did a lot of things right against the Washington Wizards. They rebounded well, especially on the offensive end. Their assist-to-turnover ratio was excellent. They played tight defense and limited fouls.
But the miscues got them. As tends to be the case, the good most certainly comes with the bad for the Thunder, and a couple key costly plays in the final minute of the game secured the 101-99 loss to the Wizards.
Trailing by two points with 37 seconds left, the Thunder allowed an offensive rebound and putback to Kyle Kuzma. After leading the battle of the offensive rebounds 10-4 at that point, the Wizards got the most important of them all.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got a quick basket on the other end and the Thunder got a stop, putting OKC in position to tie or win. Then, the miscue that will nest itself in their minds until the next game happened.
Gilgeous-Alexander got the defensive rebound with about five seconds remaining in the game and turned to take the ball upcourt. Right around that time, head coach Mark Daigneault called a timeout.
But the guard had started to dribble, and because of that, the Thunder had to inbound behind the halfcourt line instead of above. Gilgeous-Alexander got a final heave near the 3-point line, but his off-balance, one-legged, tightly contested prayer rolled in and out. OKC is left wondering what would have happened had the moment of the rebound was different.
Daigneault will likely blame himself for calling the timeout when it was clear the guard was turning up court. Gilgeous-Alexander will likely blame himself for not recognizing the team had a timeout. It’s actually a combination — they both shoulder some blame, and the team must take this as a lesson for the next close game. As we know, there will be plenty of close games this season for this OKC team.
It was a disappointing finish to one of the closer and more normal games of the season. It wasn’t a contest in which the Thunder needed a big run to cut a huge deficit. It wasn’t one in which they blew a large lead. It was a back-and-forth in which both teams held a lead as large 10 points, and the deeper, more experienced team came out on top.
Here are some grades from the night: