Pacers 107, Thunder 99 – These Are The Games OKC Needs To Win!

Led by Kevin Durant Oklahoma City jumped on the Indiana Pacers Monday night and led 34-24 at the end of the first but would see that lead squandered through out the game. Durant scored 37 points but the Thunder fell 9 points shy of their second win of the season.

In typical Thunder fashion Oklahoma City followed an explosive first quarter with a sub par 17 point effort in the second and would also be outscored in all three of the final periods. It wasn’t a case of a clear talent mismatch on the floor, or even the bench for that matter, it is just Oklahoma City’s inability to play a complete game.

I believe that this team is showing signs of improvement, particularly on the offensive end of the floor, but they just haven’t learned to win games yet. That is something that becomes extremely frustrating for fans to watch because opportunity was there for the taking on Monday night and the Thunder just couldn’t take it. There are going to be nights when Oklahoma City is clearly out manned on the floor (like the Boston game last week) and then there will be times when the Thunder find opportunity for victory like Monday night. Those are the games that Oklahoma City needs to win in order to build loyalty among the fan base.

At some point (not any time soon) the newness of this franchise is going to wear off and then the product on the floor is going to have to sell itself. Hopefully by then the Thunder will have learned to seal the deal when it comes to games like this. Up next for OKC is the Orlando Magic who have won four of their last five. Tip off in the Ford Center at 7:00 pm.