Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan has shared his players' frustration with getting ahead early and finding his team unable to keep up a consistent lead on the second half. The Thunder is coming off another blown lead against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, even after star center DeMarcus Cousins was ejected in the latter stages of the third quarter after elbowing star point guard Russell Westbrook in the head.

The Pelicans scored 58 points in the paint and shot a crisp 51.2 percent in the second half, while the Thunder struggled to a mere 33.3 percent, seeing their lead slowly vanish as New Orleans took over the game.

“In the second half, it's just our ability to sustain the defensive level and us being able to sustain getting and generating really good shots,” Donovan said, according to Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman. “We got to be able to play the first half and the second half somewhat similar, not to say they've got to be exactly the same, but somewhat similar. We have not been able to do that.”

Forward Carmelo Anthony also noted the team's inability to put a performance together as the main culprit for the Thunder's struggles, now riding a two-game losing streak before facing the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.

“For some reason we're not able to kind of sustain [the lead] for a full game,” Anthony said. “We come out and do the same thing that first quarter, sustain it a little bit, but we give teams momentum in that second quarter, and then third quarter teams keep their momentum and we're trying to fight back every time.”

OKC has been mired in a see-saw battle to start the season, and a key win against their kryptonite; the Warriors, could prove the turning of the page for their consistency struggles.