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The Oklahoma City Thunder have fallen back down to earth with back-to-back losses following their six-game winning streak. Thunder head coach Billy Donovan pointed to some “slippage” in the team’s defense as the culprit for their recent setbacks.
Per Erik Horne of The Oklahoman:
Billy Donovan says there's been “slippage” defensive (sic) with little practice time. “We're going to need to get back to our identity, which is really an elite defensive team.”
The Thunder’s dip on defense was evident in their defeat against the Dallas Mavericks, where they gave up 116 points at home. On the flipside, though, the Thunder have figured things out offensively according to Carmelo Anthony as they’ve posted the best offensive efficiency in the league over an eight-game stretch.
At this point, the Thunder are still in the process of learning how to play well on both ends of the floor at the same time. But they’ve already shown that they’re capable of being a top defensive team for a significant stretch of time, so there's no need to panic just yet about their recent setbacks.
If they can get a few more practice sessions under their belt, it should just be a matter of time until the Thunder work some kinks out and return to playing at a high level defensively.
