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.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: A-minus
Despite his shooting coming back to Earth in recent games, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to keep up with his 30-point scoring pace due to his elite ability to get to the free-throw line.
On Monday, he scored 31 points on 7-of-21 shooting but shot 16-of-18 from the free-throw line. The 16 makes mark a career high. When the Thunder needed offense, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only viable option.
To the Pelicans’ credit, I thought they did as good of a job as any other team this season in limiting Gilgeous-Alexander. Whenever he attempted to get in the paint, he was met with a flock of Pelicans that forced him to either kick the ball out or shoot a low-quality shot.
While the loss sucks, Thunder fans can breathe a sigh of relief that Gilgeous-Alexander was able to finish the game after a scary fall from biting for a pump fake in the fourth quarter saw him land awkwardly.
The Thunder aren’t in the clear yet though. Gilgeous-Alexander notably looked in pain the rest of the game. While it appears the Thunder dodged any serious injuries, we’ll have to see how Gilgeous-Alexander feels in the morning to see if there’s any short-term damage.
SGA gets to his spot and sticks the landing 💯 pic.twitter.com/8wkQzD3Rxx
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
Lu Dort: C
It was a tale of two halves for Lu Dort.
In the first half, it was all bad. Dort scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting. The second half was a different story; he scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Overall, Dort finished with 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting, five assists and three rebounds.
From an individual standpoint, this was a good game for Dort. But from a team standpoint, it’s a poor sign that the second-leading scorer had just 14 points.
Making hustle plays on defense! pic.twitter.com/Qqsvk16mhm
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
Dort goes right down main street! 💪 pic.twitter.com/C1qgByzflX
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl: B
Going into the game, it felt like Zion Williamson had a massive matchup advantage as he outweighed Jeremiah Robinson-Earl by 42 pounds and Aleksej Pokusevski by 94 pounds.
On paper, Williamson should’ve eaten inside the paint and get whatever he wanted.
Instead, to their credit, Williamson was limited to 23 points on 11-of-18 shooting, eight rebounds and eight assists.
For Robinson-Earl, he finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Robinson-Earl continues to have a solid season. In 13 starts, Robinson-Earl is averaging 9.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists. From outside, he is shooting 43.8 percent on 3.7 threes.
While it came in a loss, Robinson-Earl did hit a big-time right-wing three to give the Thunder the lead with less than a minute to go. It was a big-time shot by Robinson-Earl that will likely get forgotten about due to the result of the game but I feel like he deserves credit for hitting it.
JRE comes up big from downtown! pic.twitter.com/Z3GpEhfTUA
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
JRE spins and punches it in 👊@OGandE Power Play or the Game pic.twitter.com/OgAVUmIXW9
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
Josh Giddey: D
After the first quarter, it felt like Josh Giddey was going to have an awesome scoring game.
In his first seven minutes, he scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting. After struggling to finish around the rim, Giddey looked great on his scoring opportunities.
Instead, in his next 21 minutes, Giddey was scoreless and shot 0-of-5 from the field. Giddey also had three turnovers and four fouls.
Overall, Giddey finished with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, five rebounds and one assist.
A promising start never materialized to an impressive game for Giddey as his up-and-down sophomore seasons underwent another dip on Monday.
An early steal from Lu results in a Giddey And1 pic.twitter.com/elN8RQDUMa
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 29, 2022
Josh Giddey with ZERO hesitation 😤
There's a new option to watch the Thunder. Learn More: https://t.co/YioxgSU4nH@okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/hiY2TaZIbd
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) November 29, 2022
