NBA scores 2017: The Thunder still have problems & 5 more things from Friday night

No, the Thunder beating the Warriors didn’t mean they were about to turn everything around.

Nov 25, 2017, 12:30 PM UTC

NBA: Detroit Pistons at Oklahoma City Thunder

Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The more you squint at it, the more Oklahoma City Thunder’s performance in a blowout of the Golden State Warriors looks like an anomaly. In that home atmosphere, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook even getting into a screaming match, it felt like an emotional turning point in the moment. But a more scientific look at the Thunder proved it wasn’t.

Oklahoma City’s 99-98 loss to Detroit on Friday was further proof of that. The team ran into its same strengths, but more importantly its same weaknesses. I wrote about them following that Golden State game, and we can run through the problems again:

The Thunder’s Big Three still mostly play isolation. Westbrook had 11 assists, but they mostly go to Andre Roberson and Steven Adams. (In this game, Anthony and George got five of the 11.) The starting five, while on the court in lineups together, shot 41 percent and hit only two of their 14 three-point attempts.
The crunch-time offense is especially bad. This is an ongoing problem. Westbrook, after two missed threes with under two minutes, attempted another three as a potential game winner. It missed.

Their defense, third-best in the league, is keeping them in games. Like I wrote, I ultimately see this as a positive. Their offense can improve — it has the talent, and we know that. It wasn’t clear whether their defense could reach this level, though, and it looks like it can.

Oklahoma City visits Dallas on Saturday, a back-to-back but a manageable one against a bad team. That’s a chance to get back within one game of .500, at least.

We got MVP Steph for an evening

I’ve said this before, but I hated that Kevin Durant went to the Warriors only because it meant that we wouldn’t get this Stephen Curry as often, the guy who did patently absurd things on the basketball court that worked anyway. Like this play, for example.

With Durant out, as well as Draymond Green, Curry had 26 points in the second quarter alone. The poor Chicago Bulls thought they might have the smallest of chances given the absences, and Curry ripped their heart out and consumed it on live television. That’s a not nice thing to do, Mr. Curry. Think of the children!

Also, Steve Kerr is still clowning around

This is an ongoing bit of his. We have suggestions for the next gag!

Our Magical early season darling is no longer having fun

The Orlando Magic started 6-2, and then 8-4, and now they’ve lost seven in a row. Ah man. I really liked Orlando!

It’s more complicated than just this alone, but look at the three-point shooting. The Magic started their first eight games shooting 44.2 percent, and now they’re hitting only 33.2 percent. Their opponents only knocked down 28.3 percent against them in that 6-2 open, and now they’re burying 41.0 percent of attempts from deep. That’s regression to the mean more than anything that the Magic are doing wrong. It was bound to happen.

Daryl Morey roasted the Raptors! (Kind of)

Speaking of regression to the mean, here’s a real, actual Daryl Morey tweet.

Yes, that’s Morey tweeted out a link to the Wikipedia article for “regression to the mean” to a New York Times reporter. Oh man, this feels like the sickest burn ever.

Well, sort of. Morey was really just pointing out how everything normalizes eventually, as stats-minded people like Morey are aught to do.

He’s right. But let me just say that I prefer the version where Morey is saying that the Raptors were only losing games because they’re actually bad and won games due to luck, or whatever.