NBA scores 2017: LET’S PANIC ABOUT THE THUNDER, and 4 more things

Oklahoma City still isn’t figuring it out.

Nov 10, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder at Denver Nuggets

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The Denver Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, and that’s good. The Nuggets were a perfect team to panic about early this season, but they’ve actually won four out of their last five games — and six of their last eight. After a slow start, and after one scoreless game from the much-hyped Nikola Jokic, this has looked much more like the team we expected it to be — even Paul Millsap, with a 17-point, seven-rebound, five-assist, six-block evening.

Oklahoma City, on the other hand, has not turned things around. The much-hyped Big Three of Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony hasn’t come together with any cohesion. It looks like the stars are simply taking turns trading off possessions where each one gets the ball, and it’s puzzling to see players that talented struggle together like this.

The Thunder are only 4-7. That’s not where we expected the team to be coming into this 2017-18 season, but it’s not like they’ve lost all hope. It’ll take a longer dive than we have time for right now to dive into their problems, but it’s also clear that they can snap out of this. Win six of their next eight games like Denver has, and suddenly the Thunder are 10-9. That would alleviate a lot of concerns flying around Oklahoma City right now, and it’s entirely possible it plays out that way.

LET’S PANIC ABOUT (insert team here), PART TWO

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 117-113 to the Houston Rockets, a loss that drops Cleveland to 5-7. Houston is no slouch, but this isn’t where we expected the Cavaliers to be starting the season, either. If the playoffs started today, they’d be three spots out of them in the Eastern Conference. But they don’t, and so that’s ultimately a worthless exercise.

Still, the Cavaliers have problems because LeBron James is as good as ever and they still can’t consistently win games. He scored 33 points on Thursday, and he was the second-best Cavalier at plus-five. Dwyane Wade, old buddy, was minus-21.

I refuse to panic about the Cavaliers, said the blogger who has been fooled too many times by them. I refuse to do it. They look really bad though. I refuse to do it. What if they’re actually bad now. I refuse to do it.

Houston’s a great team and Cleveland’s schedule has been tough, and they beat Milwaukee and Washington all the same. (They also lost to Atlanta, so figure that one out for me.) But the Cavaliers have been here before and ended up fine by the playoffs, so it’s best to just trust that they’ll figure it out like they have every time before.

De’AarWIN Fox is here to stay

Fox didn’t have an amazing game — just 4-of-13 shooting — but two of his shots came in the final minute when it mattered most, as the Sacramento Kings roared back for a comeback win vs. the 76ers. Fox capped it with this shot:

And the Kings De’AarWIN.

Clint Capela is getting better.

Houston’s youngest rotation player is only 23, and he matters a lot to the Rockets. Here he is swatting LeBron James to all but seal the game late:

Sorry, James.

Lonzo Ball’s struggles didn’t get better.

The coldest start in NBA history was followed up with a 3-of-12 shooting performance on Thursday, and the Wizards got their revenge on Los Angeles after an embarrassing loss just a couple of weeks ago. Well, the winning was fun while it lasted for the Lakers, I’m sure.