After a day of rest, the Oklahoma City Thunder found themselves in yet another tight contest against the Los Angeles Clippers… up until the end of the third quarter. Trailing by just two, 80-78, with a little over two minutes left in the third period, the Clippers, who were without Paul George after he suffered a knee injury, went on a 47-25 spurt to end the game, blowing OKC out of the water with an all-out assault from beyond the arc.
Nevertheless, Thunder guard Josh Giddey, who ended up being -15 on the night because of his presence on the court during the Clippers' blistering run, believes that their opponents just made one tough shot after another, with the main culprit being Kawhi Leonard, who bounced back from his short stay in the Dorture Chamber during their Tuesday night battle with a 32-point performance on 13-15 shooting from the field.
“I mean, first off, it was tied at the break. I think they made some tough shots. Kawhi, obviously, was hot early on. I think, for the most part, we did a good enough job on him. I don't think he missed many for the game, [but] I think overall, our defense was alright,” Giddey said, per Bally Sports Oklahoma.
Josh Giddey breaks down what went wrong tonight for the Thunder after a strong start.@okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/kLpLoTeoA8
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) March 24, 2023
Josh Giddey then added that Kawhi Leonard's hot start, and the subsequent deserved defensive attention he drew became too much to handle for the Thunder defense.
“At the back end of that third quarter, I think, we collapsed too much. Kawhi, he drew too much attention. Guys were getting sucked in to it, they were spraying it out, hitting threes. When they made that run, we had to put a stop to that at the start of the fourth. But they blew the game open. And once we were down 20 points with minutes to go, the game was out reach,” Giddey added.
“I think the first half was alright, but the second half, there's a lot of things we could have cleaned up.”
As dispiriting as that ending was for the Thunder, they will need to recover quickly, as they take on the Los Angeles Lakers — one of their rivals for a more preferable playoff/play-in spot — on Friday night at 10:30 PM E.T.
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