On February 3, Beijing time, the Lone Rangers lost to the Fish Belly Thunder at home 114-120, encountering two consecutive defeats, and the Thunder won two consecutive wins. Before this game, the outside world is more optimistic about the Lone Rangers to win, because their ranking is much higher than the Thunder, and the recent performance is also better, in terms of overall strength, the Lone Rangers have the advantage. However, in this game, the Thunder were in the lead for most of the time, and at most the Thunder were 12 points ahead. Although dragged into overtime in the final quarter, the Thunder dominated the game in overtime, hitting three consecutive outside runs and scoring 17 points in overtime, while the Lone Rangers only had 11 points. In the end, the Thunder successfully defeated the Lone Rangers on the road and won the game.
Many of the Thunder's players performed well in this game, including 9 of 17 shooting, and 6 of 10 shots from the outside line to get 30 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. The team rookie Mann ushered in this game, he started 41 minutes and 10 seconds, 8 of 14 shots, 8 of 8 three-pointers to score 29 points, 29 points set a new career single-game scoring record. In addition to these two players, the Thunder's Kiddy contributed 14 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists, Jerome 11 points, Beziley 13 points and 11 rebounds, a total of 5 players on the team scored in double figures, in Alexander's absence, the Thunder team with the overall excellent play, they successfully defeated the lone ranger team above themselves, and won this game.
On the Lone Rangers side, this campaign faced the Thunder team that lacked Alexander, the team was not focused, they lacked enough concentration, they did not work hard enough at both ends of the attack and defense, and the overall performance was worse. Defensively, they couldn't limit the Thunder's play, giving them a lot of easy scoring opportunities in the first three quarters and overtime, and the team wasn't able to make adjustments. Although in the final quarter, the team woke up like a dream, they blasted a 27-18 attack in the single quarter, successfully dragging the game into extra time. But in overtime, the Lone Rangers' weak defense gave the Thunder a lot of easy scoring opportunities, and the team did not improve its strength on the defensive end. The sluggish play in overtime also led to the team eventually losing to the Thunder.
Doncic performed well in this game, he started 42 minutes and 38 seconds, 16 of 33 shots, 5 of 13 three-pointers to get 40 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists of quasi-triple-double data, in addition to 3 steals, he became the best player in the game, but unfortunately, Doncic got 40 +6 + 10 luxurious data, or could not help the team win, the Lone Ranger's performance on the defensive end was not ideal, which became the main reason for the team to lose the game.
The Lone Rangers have had an interesting season because they play very well against teams during a winning streak and tend to win games, and when they face lower-ranked teams, teams often lose coldly. Their state and play are not stable enough, and they lack the ability to continue to play a stable performance at both ends of the attack and defense, which is also the most important problem for the Lone Rangers to solve at present.