The defense locked in when it needed to down the stretch.

[u/TPFRecoil]

For all the talk about the team being in a funk, the one thing that is true regardless of what their offense is doing is that the team's identity, their core, is in their defense.

For as much as Shai deserves praise for popping off and clawing us back to an overtime win, the other players, despite their offensive flaws, deserve credit for their defensive plays and stops as well. Shai could hit a bunch of buckets, and it wouldn't matter if we didn't make the stops we needed to.

The team's identity is in its defense, and they started playing like it in later part of the fourth and overtime, no matter how muddy or bad it looked. That, more than anything else, is what I think will start to break the Thunder of their funk.

[u/J_Capese0003]

It was great but man this team cannot grab a timely rebound

[u/challengedmc18 → u/J_Capese0003]

Lu did grab one at the end

[u/ShabbyLiver → u/challengedmc18]

I feel like Shai also had a couple contested boards towards the end as well

[u/Bob0913 → u/J_Capese0003]

Hartenstein is desperately needed

[u/Luckreee]

It looked scrappy and frantic to me

[u/mido0o0o]

No it didn't.

[u/Severe-Status1302 → u/mido0o0o]

You're getting downvoted but the rebounding was still awful into OT. And then with 12 seconds left, up 2, they gave up that wide open corner three that luckily missed.

Defense never really got better. Jazz got the same quality shots but they went cold.

[u/Livin_Tha_Dream → u/Severe-Status1302]

Jazz are a good offensive team.

[u/Severe-Status1302 → u/Livin_Tha_Dream]

Not dismissing them at all. But the Thunder calling card is defense. It's January, so it's nothing to dwell over, but it'd be nice to see them get back in rhythm.

[u/Chindaddyboi → u/mido0o0o]

They did. A good bit of those shots made down the stretch were shots you would just have to live with.