Wednesday, November 20th, 2019

• The OKC Thunder play with heart and us bettor's appreciate it

• The Blazers lose for the fifth time in seven games in Carmelo Anthony's debut

• If you were wondering: Yes, there is an Alex Caruso mural in LA

Tonight's must-watch games

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The lead: Bad teams get blown out, hard-playing mediocre teams cover

Last night, the Oklahoma City Thunder went into Staples Center, tried really hard, and lost by five points.On Monday, the Thunder did the same thing in the same arena against the Clippers, and lost by two points.In the real world, those are moral victories; all for nought; two losses in the always-tough Western Conference.In the betting world (assuming you put your money on the underdog Thunder), those are two wins; the Thunder were 11-point underdogs against the Lakers and 7.5-point underdogs against the Clippers, and they covered both of those spreads easily.That’s been the story all season for this beautiful mashup of a roster, whose net rating of minus-.4 suggests a team much closer to .500 than 5-9.Rejoice, Thunder fans: This used to be a team with three future MVPs, now its calling card is its ability to lose by only a little bit to really good teams.Observe:

• OKC has been an underdog in all six of its road games. In real life, they’ve lost all of them. In the betting world, they’ve covered four of them, including three with spreads of nine or more. 

• At home, the Thunder have been underdogs four times; they’ve covered three of those times. 

• The only time it’s not particularly advantageous to choose the Thunder in a spread is at home when favored. And even then you’d be breaking even at 2-2.

The lesson: This team is more allergic to getting blown out than Lindsey Graham is to standing for something.The advice: The Thunder are hosting the Lakers on Friday night. The Lakers will be favored by something like 7.5 points (we’ll update you Friday).Do what you have to do -- liquidate your useless hobby; chase down your debts; avoid your high school friend’s pyramid scheme; go to the nearest college campus and find a kid with salmon shorts and ask to use his betting app (he’ll have one) -- so you can pick OKC to lose by less than eight points.

2. An update from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's burner account 

KCP had a decent game last night, which means KCP's

(which is up to 2,339 followers) had to let us know.

It was one game, KCP. Calm down.

3. The Portland Trail Blazers, like their newest player, are iso-heavy and kind of washed

For an idea of how Carmelo Anthony’s debut with the Trail Blazers went last night, look no further than this tweet from former-fellow-exile Nick Young: 

Indeed, Carmelo was not eased into anything. In his first NBA action since November, 2018, he started (and even nailed his first 3-pointer) before taking on the persona of his suddenly sad and stuck new team. The game ended in a 115-104 loss to the Pelicans, dropping the Western Conference finalists of a year ago to 5-10.‘Melo’s final line: 

10 PTS | 4 REB  | 0 AST | 5 TO | 4-14 FG | Minus-20 | One failed attempt at posterizing Jaxson Hayes

[Watch: Carmelo Anthony's full lowlights]As talented as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are, the ball-stopping style they promote hasn’t been helping. Per NBA.com’s advanced stats, Portland makes the second-fewest passes per game (235.7, down from 281.7 last year) and is last in the league in assists (18.7).Houston, the team with the fewest passes per game (235.2), also has perhaps the greatest isolation player ever in James Harden, and another good one in Russell Westbrook.

• Right now, Harden is averaging 16.2 points per game in isolation plays, which leads the league by more than 10 points.

• Lillard is third, at 5.1, and McCollum is 11th, at 2.9 per game.

• As a team, Portland is scoring 11.2 iso points per game, a distant second to the Rockets’ 22.1.

So, unlike Houston, Portland, without its play-making big man, seems stuck between styles, over-committing to an iso-heavy offense without much gumption or belief. 2009 Carmelo would have been a perfect remedy for that; 2019 Carmelo, though, is not. The Blazers are also only 21st in defensive rating, which has helped lead to some confounding losses to other average or bad teams like San Antonio, Golden State, Sacramento and New Orleans.The clock’s already ticking for them; Carmelo was only ever going to be a stopgap, but perhaps someone like Kevin Love could help jumpstart Portland.[Read: The rebooted Carmelo Anthony: same as he ever was]

4. Alex Caruso: in color

Some stupid-but-not-talentless person actually painted this mural in L.A. of Alex Caruso dunking on Jamal Murray, James Harden, Devon Booker, Kawhi Leonard, and Luka Dončić.

• James Harden has attempted 200 3s in 14 games. Larry Bird never attempted 200 3s in a season.

• Adrian Wojnarowski is taping a live episode of The Woj Pod at Emerson College on December 5, with Emerson alum and Thunder general manager Sam Presti.

• ICYMI: Luka Dončić with the dagger in Monday night’s 117-110 win over the San Antonio Spurs. His final stat line: Career-high 42 PTS | 12 AST | 11 REB | Plus-11

• The Denver Nuggets getting a little post-practice futsal in.

• Kings forward Bogdan Bogdanovic had a career-high 31 points in a 120-116 win over the Phoenix Suns last night. 

• A kid at the Lakers game went off during a time-out contest last night.

• Giannis randomly did a post-game interview with a baby in his hand Monday night.

• These alternative Mavericks jerseys are the worst jerseys any of the four pro sports have ever come up with.

• It’s never been easier to score 50 points in an NBA game [The Ringer]

• The wild story behind the NBA’s most unlikely heist [ESPN]

• Markelle Fultz’s slow climb back [The New York Times]

Is the James Harden-OKC trade the biggest what if in NBA history? [Book of Basketball 2.0]