By the Numbers: Thunder Drop Third Straight, Loses to Sacramento

Another super team loses to another bad team



The Kings were limited to 10 points in the first quarter but came back and won the game.


When you see a team with Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and Paul George playing together, what do you expect? A win. Almost every single game. 

Why? All three of them have the capability to score 40 to 50 points at ease. Russell Westbrook alone, can notch a triple-double almost single night as we saw last season which enabled him to win his first MVP award.

So technically speaking, the Oklahoma City Thunder is a super team. Or are they?

Right after the first quarter when Sacramento only managed to score 10 points, they roared back before halftime and took the lead for good. And when the Thunder were making a late push, the Kings were able to hold on as they finally scored their second victory of the season after beating the Thunder, 94-86. 

So what happened? Below are the numbers:


Too Many Missed Shots

  • Carmelo Anthony: 4 of 17 
  • Paul Geroge: 4 of 16
  • Russell Westbrook: 7 of 21
If you want a simple explanation as to why the Thunder lost to the worst team in the Western Conference, just look at how horrible their field goal shooting was. Against the Kings, the Thunder only made 29 of their 86 field goal attempts- that's a 33% field goal shooting, folks.

They were also miserable from beyond the three-point line as Oklahoma City only hit 10 of their 27 attempts from deep. Both Carmelo Anthony and Paul Geroge shot 3 of 9 from deep while Russell Westbrook went 2 of 8 from that area. 

In contrast, Sacramento shot 46% from the field, made 37% of their attempts from long distance and, 91% of their free throws.


More Points from Turnovers

Sure, the Kings had 23 turnovers compared to OKC's 17 but the Kings were more aggressive in turning those Thunder turnovers into points as they held a 19-8 advantage in points off turnovers. Mind you, the Thunder were uncharacteristically called for 3 shot clock violations in the third quarter alone. All in all, Russell Westbrook had 7 of the Thunder's 17 turnovers. He's the MVP, right?


Conclusion

With a record stands at 4-6 which puts them at 12th place in the West, this is something that we don't expect from a team that has three All-Star caliber players in their starting line up. While chemistry might be the issue for the Thunder's early struggles, it's still early for the rest of the league to call the team-up a bust but Oklahoma needs to work things out from their end because if not, it might cause Billy Donovan his job.  

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