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Melo: When Thunder stick to script, 'we're a hell of a team to beat'

Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports / Action Images

Twenty-six contests into the season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are two games below .500. Growing pains were anticipated with the Russell Westbrook-Paul George-Carmelo Anthony triumvirate, but being outside of the Western Conference's top eight more than a quarter into the season wasn't really expected.

A day after starting a mini-Melo-drama for eschewing postgame media availability following a loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Anthony preached the big picture.

"We know what we want to do, how we want to play, and when we stick to that script, we're a hell of a team to beat," he said, per ESPN's Royce Young. "We put a lot of fear in teams when we play the right way."

Anthony explained his locker room vanishing act as wanting to FaceTime with his son on a school night, but tongues had began wagging in NBA media circles because it came on the heels of his fourth straight subpar game.

While Anthony is right that the Thunder could be an elite team if everyone is on the same page, that's yet to happen for a prolonged stretch. Each of he, Westbrook, and George need to shoulder varying degrees of sacrifice, but it's a no-brainer that the 33-year-old Anthony should be the one to alter his game the most.

That doesn't appear to be happening, as he ranks seventh in the league in isolation frequency at 21.9 percent of his plays, per NBA Stats, and only shooting 40 percent on them.

Conversely, he's shooting 37.8 percent from 3-point territory on catch-and-shoot. While Anthony admits he's going through the roughest offensive stretch of his career, much of the Thunder's problems come back to the team in general and coach Billy Donovan.

Defensively, the Thunder are fine. They rank second in defensive rating and George leads the league in steals. It's with the ball that they need flow, something they've only demonstrated in small sample sizes.

"There's spurts when we don't do that and it shows a crack in our armor," Anthony said. "It all comes down to being a little bit more consistent."

There's still a long way to go this season. And for Anthony and the Thunder, they're probably holding on to the old NBA adage that the season doesn't really get started until Christmas.

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