Thunder Blow Out Wolves 113-93

After a while, and some alcohol, it's hard to know what to say. The Wolves finish the first half of the season a putrid 12-29, having lost nine in a row and 13 of their last 14.

They were thoroughly outclassed in this one, with Russell Westbrook posting his 4th triple double of the season in 27 easy minutes and six Thunder finishing in double figures. The game was never in doubt, as the Wolves settled for their usual array of long jumpers early, failed to make them, and the Thunder raced out to an early lead that they stretched to 14 by the end of the first quarter.

The Wolves never really challenged after that. There was a brief interlude in the 2nd quarter when Mitchell ran with the lineup we all want to see more of: Rubio, Wiggins, Muhammad, Bjelica, and Towns, and the Wolves cut the lead to 8, but the Thunder promptly responded with a run of their own, pushed it back out to 14 at halftime, and that was it. One more quick Thunder run toward the end of the third quarter and the game was over, with the 4th quarter featuring mostly bench guys for both teams and Westbrook and Durant not appearing at all.

I get a TON of "Fire Mitchell" tweets on nights like this, and you can see why. They don't seem to be getting better. The offense is horrid, with no spacing and no ball movement. The transition defense is often abysmal. Things do not seem to be getting better, but worse. A lot of that is on the coach.

On the other hand, let's not pretend that the talent is there and ready and a better coach would magically get this team winning. There is still a dearth of talent and fit on this roster.

Here's a question for you: how many guys on the Wolves would you NOT trade straight up for Cameron Payne?

At any rate, it's hard to find good things to say after this one. Nikola Pekovic was able to power through Enes Kanter some and finished with 10 points in his 18 minutes. For some crazy reason Mitchell left Andrew Wiggins out there for 40 minutes, and he scored 25 points but nobody watching would say he played well.

The defense was particularly grim, as the Thunder not only shot 53% from the floor despite being off from three, but had a season high for points in the paint for a Wolves opponent and only turned it over six times against their season average of nearly 16.

The Thunder consistently were able to drive and dish in front of a scrambling Wolves defense that still has no conception of help concepts, as well as grab 12 offensive boards and convert multiple run out, fast break opportunities. Their quickness and atleticism, as well as skill level was pretty clearly on another tier than the Wolves, who struggled to finish around the rim against the Thunder shot blockers.

I'll probably find something to write about this team over the weekend, but right now I have nothing left to say. Nobody played well, they got blown out, and it's been a long time since their last win. That's the bottom line.

Next up is an afternoon game at home on Sunday against the Phoenix Suns. Hey, they could possibly win that one.