NBA champ goes off on Thunder after 'embarrassing' loss to Magic

The Thunder lost to the Magic 121-108 Wednesday, extending their losing streak to three games. They have lost five of their last six. Many people have been critical of Oklahoma City so far this year, but Antonio Daniels may have summed up their problems best on the Thunder's postgame show. "This team is about talk right now," the 13-year NBA veteran turned analyst said on Fox Sports. "They are not taking anything from the pregame or postgame press conferences and applying it to the floor."

What he is talking about is simple, and it was brought up on more than one occasion in the broadcast Wednesday, the team's offense is not running the way it should be. The team is not sharing the ball and it is costing the Thunder wins. The Thunder had just 17 assists on 38 field goals made Wednesday. It's easy to say it's a one-night thing, but in truth, it has been a season-long problem because the Thunder are averaging 21 assists per game — tied for 21st in the league.

"That's a lull you're bringing on yourself," Daniels said. "That's nothing the Orlando Magic are doing."

After Wednesday's game was tied at 77 with 4:22 left in the third quarter, the Thunder let the Magic go on a 10-0 run. In that time, Oklahoma City went 0 for 9 from the floor. In the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City was outscored 34-28 and Paul George took three shots. That's not what the Thunder expected to get out of him after trading for the All-Star, but it's what they got because they didn't move the ball.

Like Daniels said, that's on them. Beyond that, the team didn't play with great energy in the closing minutes and many do not take kindly to that, especially Daniels. "When you go through lulls somebody has to bring a spark, and I'm not talking about a spark of a dunk, and I'm not talking about a spark of just something that happens on the floor, I'm talking about in general, so there are times where there are lulls in timeouts where it doesn't seem like there's something going on, we had guys in the huddle that were cursing other guys out," Daniels said, referring to his time in the NBA.