Getting doubled at the midcourt logo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander threw an erratic pass that went out of bounds. The avoidable turnover has the OKC crowd groan in frustration. In a disturbing trend that continues to grow, the reigning NBA champion’s offense has reached a point of crisis.

The Oklahoma City Thunder hit rock bottom in their 124-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. It’s easily their worst loss of the season and has caused folks to justifiably hit the panic button on their recent mediocre 6-6 stretch.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points on 7-of-21 shooting, six assists and two rebounds. He shot 1-of-6 from 3 and went 6-of-6 on free throws. He also had a block.

How does Gilgeous-Alexander follow up an ultra-rare stinker in a heartbreaker to the Phoenix Suns? With an even worse one. This time, you can sound the alarms, as it was against a bottom-five defense. The same problems popped up for the reigning MVP. Too often, his jumper was off. On shots that he makes in his sleep, the ball would clank off the front of the rim.

As the Thunder quickly fell behind on the scoreboard, Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t drag them back into the game. The drives to the basket seldom happened. His jumper once again betrayed him. Everything that has made him into an NBA superstar and probable back-to-back MVP winner was absent for another night.

I’m a little baffled, to be honest. I can’t remember the last time Gilgeous-Alexander has had such an awful stretch for two straight games. There’s zero evidence behind this, but something feels off. Again, it’s one thing for this to happen on the road against one of the best defenses. It’s another at home against a rebuilding squad.

“I just don’t think we brought the energy and multiple efforts. The energy things on both ends of the floor. From the get, it feels like they were ahead of us on both ends of the floor,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Offensively and defensively. That’s usually not a good recipe.”

This has been repeated ad nauseam, but the Thunder need Gilgeous-Alexander to be at his tip-top shape to be the title favorite. Any slippage in that regard exposes OKC’s entire infrastructure. You can complain about that team-building philosophy another day, but it brought home one NBA championship. He needs to return to being a superb-efficient walking 30-point scorer or none of this works out.

“Everything is a work in progress. We are not where we want to be at the end of the season. We’re far from that. We got to be a lot better if we want to achieve our goals,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Just like last year, at this point.”