The Oklahoma City Thunder have lost five of their last seven games and are slowly losing ground in the Western Conference. A lot of physical mistakes have contributed to the poor stretch of play, but head coach Billy Donovan sees more to it than that.
After Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Donovan said he wants to see his team “sacrifice” more.
“I think the biggest thing we need to do is make a decision, collectively as a group, from an accountability standpoint, of what type of team we want to be,” he said, per Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. “In order to do that, there has to be a high level of sacrifice by everybody.”
The Thunder and Clippers could very well wind up meeting in the postseason, and Donovan hinted that a close loss to a good team like that could be a positive for his team if they handle it the right way.
“The best thing for this team is adversity,” he said. “They need adversity. They don’t need it to be easy. And today was an adverse situation. So what do we do from here?”
Oklahoma City scored just 98 points Wednesday night, and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for a whopping 48 shots. They converted just 20 of them.
With rumors swirling that Durant could be heading to another team in the West this summer, the Thunder desperately need to rediscover their winning ways down the stretch. If they come up short in the playoffs yet again, Durant might start giving serious thought to leaving OKC.
