What the Thunder needs most is consistency. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder have now dropped two straight games, as the OKC lost to the Houston Rockets 119-98 on Saturday night. The Thunder are still a respectable 4-2 to start the season, but with the mirage of injuries Oklahoma City has gone through, you have to wonder about its future. 

Multiple things went wrong for OKC as it lost the turnover battle and the battle on the offensive boards in its last bout, along with nobody stepping up to shoulder the offensive burden that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had to carry alone. With so many star players out, this is something that can not happen on a regular basis, or else the Thunder will see a lot of the same results. 

One player who can fix this, however, is Jared McCain. McCain has had big games for OKC already this season, as he had 20 points in the season opener against San Antonio, and had 18 points in the Thunder’s last win against the Suns. However, the Thunder’s defined sharpshooter has been streaky shooting the ball recently. 

In these two games where McCain performed well, he shot the ball very well from three. However, those two games have been the only nights where he has lit it up from downtown. In the Thunder’s last two games, McCain hasn’t made a single shot from deep, missing all 11 shots taken. This has not been good for the Thunder’s overall three-point shooting percentage, as they have shot about 24% from three over these past two games. 

McCain was one of the players that Oklahoma City expected to make a big leap this season, and the young guard is definitely capable of it. The injuries have made this a more difficult task, as McCain is now keyed on more than was originally expected. However, no matter how the situation continues, the Thunder will need McCain to become more consistent. 

If McCain can start putting up good numbers from deep every night, then the Thunder will start to benefit from the better results these good performances cause. McCain is now depended on heavily, as he is a starter playing almost 30 minutes a night, and the Thunder need him to start living up to this role so that the team’s championship hopes can stay alive this year. If the young guard can live up to the expectations, then the crippled Thunder might just shock the world and make noise this season.