Thunder continue slide against Grizzlies as playoff spot grows distant

After losing Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant for long stretches early in the season, the margin for error for the Oklahoma City Thunder was always going to be slim. It's now graphene.

The Thunder dropped their fourth game in five outings Saturday, rolling over in an 85-74 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are anything but a slouch and have been dominant against other top competition, but it continues a terrible stretch of play for the Thunder in which they've failed to reach 100 points in regulation in seven consecutive games.

Durant returned from a sprained toe but shot poorly en route to 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Westbrook managed just 14 points on an identical 5-of-16 from the floor, adding six rebounds and five assists. The supporting cast was largely non-existent, and as a result the Thunder find themselves on the wrong side of .500 at 23-24.

That's simply not going to cut it in the Western Conference, and the four-and-a-half-game gap between the Thunder and the eighth-seeded Phoenix Suns seems enormous considering Phoenix's current 48-win pace. To reach 48 wins, the Thunder need to go 25-10, a 59-win full season pace that seems within their wheelhouse at full strength but leaves essentially no room for a cold stretch the rest of the season.

"We know we're going to get in the playoffs," Kendrick Perkins said this week. "There's no if, ands or buts about it."

Perkins better hope things change in a hurry.

The wing marks the sixth in a row for Memphis and their 10th in the last 11 games, pushing them to 35-12, two-and-a-half-games behind the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the conference. Mike Conley's return from a wrist sprain brought with it 10 points and an energy boost, while Zach Randolph continues his ridiculous stretch of play with 21 points and 18 rebounds. Good luck winning in The Grindhouse right now.