“That slipped and that area has slipped on our defensive end,” Brooks said Tuesday. “The last two games we did not do a good job of making our opponent feel us defensively. We definitely have to refocus and stay mentally sharp in that area.”
The Thunder surrendered 122 points in an overtime loss to Sacramento and 110 to Utah over the weekend, both well above either teams scoring average this season.
Brooks acknowledged that the Thunder seldom has been short in the scoring department this season. But he said there have been too many instances where OKC doesn’t bring it entirely on the defensive end. And it’s hard to find success with such imbalance.
Like this team in general, becoming a better defensive unit remains a work in progress.
The Thunder is just removed from its most successful month of the season, when it recorded seven wins in January.
But with those seven wins also came seven losses, not including two more last weekend.
And in all those losses, Brooks pointed to four games in which the Thunder played well offensively but lagged on the other end. Brooks cited games against Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets.
The Thunder only won its matchup against Golden State. OKC let its opponent dictate the tempo in the other games.
Each of those three losses, Brooks said, were, “all last-second shots, or last-minute shots of the game. We have to have more of a mentality that we’re going to have stops and they have to be throughout the game.”
That starts Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets at the Ford Center in a rematch of one of the more thrilling games played this season.
WEAVER STILL IN
Brooks said he will continue to start rookie Kyle Weaver for the immediate future, but that the team is “flexible” with that position.
CHRIS SILVA | THUNDER.NBA.COM | FEB. 5, 2009
