The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen a precipitous fall from the third-place spot in the West they used to occupy not long ago, dropping to the eighth and last seed in the conference after the last two losses. Paul George and company have now lost seven of their last 10 games, leaving him and the rest of the locker room confused and frustrated.
The Thunder are also 7-14 in their last 21 games of this latter stretch of the season after a horrid 106-103 loss to the already eliminated Dallas Mavericks sans Luka Doncic — a defeat that is tough to excuse given the seeding that's at stake.
Asked if there was any confusion, frustration or anger in this recent skid, George seemed to acknowledge it, without providing much context as to what's actually happening in the locker room:
“I think that's amongst this locker room,” said Paul George.
Paul George and Russell Westbrook have been consistent in keeping any possible frustrations private: pic.twitter.com/d1W74LnCaE
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) March 31, 2019
Dennis Schroder was also asked about the mental state of this team when on the floor, but had a simple “I don't know” to address the recent fallout:
“Our identity is getting stops and being physical at the defensive end, getting rebounds and get out,” said Schroder. “Every time that we do it, we're in good shape. We'll take the lead, they'll come back, we'll go from down 10 points, 12 points, whatever it is, we just got to do for 48 [minutes].”
Dennis Schröder on why the Thunder hasn’t been able to put together consistent 48-minute performances late in the season: “I don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/BjsreylNQF
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) March 31, 2019
The Thunder have been unable to channel that same effort for those 48 minutes, and those poor habits have hurt them against teams like the Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves and other non-playoff teams that have turned into Ls for this team as of late.
Follow Us
Subscribe