Seems like Oklahoma City is trying to set the record for losses after entering the 4th quarter with a lead. They now have 12 such losses (out of 22 overall losses), the most in the NBA:
Toronto: led 81-73, lost 103-98
Boston: led 74-72, lost 100-85
@ Memphis: led 80-79, lost 122-114
@ Miami: led 76-74, lost 97-95
@ Cleveland: led 78-74, lost 104-100
@ Portland: led 85-80, lost 115-110
Indiana: led 76-67, lost 101-98
Golden State: led 83-78, lost 121-118(OT)
@ Los Angeles Clippers: led 85-68, lost 103-98
@ Golden State: led 83-82, lost 121-106
Minnesota: led 73-69, lost 99-96
@ San Antonio: led 68-66, lost 93-85
The team with the next most blown leads going into the 4th quarter is Philadelphia with 10 (out of 57 overall losses).
@ucbalumnus - yes, it’s getting quite frustrating watching them. The number of times we have a lead (often a pretty good one) & then end up losing is getting ridiculous.
Blowing leads like that comes down to something NBA teams struggle with, depth. Oklahoma city was a lot better team when they had James Hardin coming off the bench, while NBA teams love the marquise players, games are often won and last by the depth of your bench. San Antonio comes to mind, or Golden State, both of them have deep teams (built very differently, but still), and as a result, they tend to come back and win those games they were losing. Among other things, if your top players are playing 40 minutes plus, they get tired, whereas a balanced team allow for rest and for building that come back. On Golden State, everyone looks at Steph Curry (and rightfully so, other than if you are Phil Jackson, an increasingly out of touch and dyspeptic a-hole), but they forget that is a team with depth, so Curry doesn’t have to do it alone, and they are well coached, too.
That is why Curry is one of the best to ever play this game IMO, and he is just getting started. The kind of ability you see in Curry is not just natural talent, the man has to work at it to be able to do those kind of things, and his blend of shooting and the ability to pass the ball to others makes him a lot more valuable than many of those on the top of the points per game list. If he doesn’t get hurt, he likely will end up being remembered I think like players like Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabar are. When Phil Jackson tweeted that Curry reminded him of a couple of flashes in the pans he knew of, it showed why he should be sent packing ASAP, either he is jealous because the Knicks absolutely stink, or he really has lost it.
These old players and people like Phil Jackson who criticize Curry are out of their minds. When they criticize Curry, they are really sharing a little bit about themselves…and what they are sharing is not flattering.
These old guys were not as good as Curry is right now. They just weren’t.
I am a fan of only one team and Curry is not on this team. So, I do not care about his abilities. And that is how it goes for me. Good for him and his team and fans that he is so great and hard working.
Losing to a team that only scored 7 points in the first quarter was probably a little unexpected. Spurs probably lost a chance at home court advantage against the Warriors. I’m not broken up about it.
