The Oklahoma City Thunder has 14 home losses this season. It’s the organization’s most home defeats since 2009-10, when that Thunder team lost 14 times at home.
That team was driven by kids: Kevin Durant was 21, Russell Westbrook was 21 and James Harden was 20, and yet that team had the same homecourt success rate as this season’s team with 29-year-old Westbrook, 27-year-old Paul George and 33-year-old Carmelo Anthony.
Through 79 games last season – the first season played after Durant’s flight to Golden State – the Oklahoma City Thunder was 45-34.
While it was a significant, sobering drop from the 60-win finish of 2013 and 59-win record of 2014, the 2016-17 Thunder was an overachieving, respectable squad driven by Westbrook’s quest for triple-double records.
Through 79 games this season – after having augmented the roster with All-Stars George and Anthony – the Thunder is 45-34 and faced with a possibility that five months ago was unthinkable. There is a chance that Oklahoma City won’t be involved in the NBA playoffs.
