What are the odds of the Thunder beating one of the best teams in basketball, when they only shot 36% from the field, were out-rebounded, were down by 17 points at one point, and turned the ball over 6 times in the first quarter. Would you say a win was likely?
That’s what happened and if you didn’t see it you missed a very good and entertaining game. The Thunder came out against the Spurs and were flat offensively (even by tonight’s standards). Nobody not named Durant could hit a bucket. Meanwhile the Spurs were their usual efficient self mostly getting every shot to drop. They shot 13/23 in the opening quarter (56%), had 10 rebounds and 9 assists and only one turn. The Thunder were 6/18 (33%) with 8 boards and 6 turns. They were taking everything from outside and not getting into the paint.
In the second quarter the Thunder’s shooting didn’t improve much, but the defense began to take hold. They forced the Spurs into 9 turns in the quarter, and held them to 33% shooting. The Thunder began to get into the paint in the second and it paid off-getting to the line 13 times to cut the lead down to 4 by halftime. We also hang onto the ball better, only committing 3 turns. I began to think that maybe we might have a chance, but we still needed to shoot more efficiently.
In the third it was more of the same: defensive intensity by both teams, which produced poor shooting by both teams. The difference between the two teams seemed to be that we were getting to the line and they weren’t, and we crashed the boards hard in the third snagging 12 to the Spurs 9. The Spurs lead was down to two at 63-61 at the end of three.
Early in the fourth we tied it up at 63 on a deep two by Durant. Four minutes later we took our first lead 70-67 on a Chucky Atkins three on a feed from Thabo. If the defensive intensity was ratcheted up before, it really went to a new level in the fourth, with the Thunder getting huge defensive stops one after the other. On the opening play of the fourth, Thabo bodied up on Roger Mason Jr. and forced him out of bounds on a drive. Then Thabo made a steal in the open court. Then Weaver stripped Duncan from behind when he was posting up Collison, exactly like Thabo had done in the third quarter (it lead to the three by Atkins). Later on a switch Green was guarding Parker and stayed in front of him long enough to cause him to double dribble.
About this time Duncan was non stop whining to the refs about the calls he wasn’t getting. The refs had already given him a technical. Finally the refs gave Duncan a “make up call” when he charged into Collison-clearly an offensive foul-but called it a blocking foul. However, Karma is good: Duncan missed both free throws.
Late in the fourth with just a few seconds left, Westbrook rushed a jumper from the top of the key and the Spurs got the rebound, down two with 18 seconds left. After the timeout, Parker penetrated and stepped out for a jumper on a screen but Thabo got a hand up and bothered him into missing. Roger Mason got the rebound and kicked it back out to Parker for another crack at it. He was just outside of the three point line and Thabo was closing out. He took one little step to the left and fired away and again Thabo had his hand right there either on the ball or right near it.
Great win for the Thunder and hopefully a big lesson on how to defend and close out a win with a lead.
Random bullets
- The Thunder shooting by quarters: 33%, 37%, 36%, 36%. It’s incredibly consistent, even though it’s also incredibly underwhelming.
- Spurs shooting by quarters: 56.5%, 33%, 42%, 29.4%.
- Our 29 field goals made was tied for the second lowest of the season-the one time we made fewer, our coach got fired in the loss to the Hornets.
- Krstic and Collison did a masterful job clogging the middle tonight, along with the help defense around the rim. Duncan was swarmed most of the night and only bagged 14 points on 6/13 shooting, and only got to the line for 5 freebies. He did get 13 rebounds. Krstic an Collison also did a good job on Gooden when he came in the paint. Collison was really battling him for position.
- The Thunder got to the line 19 times combined in the second and third quarters, and not at all in the fourth.
- I enjoyed watching Duncan look slow and flat footed when Durant drove right at him one on one and finished with a reverse dunk.
- Twice in the third quarter the Thunder defense was screwed up for some reason. Parker had the ball and was being guarded by Westbrook, he got a screen from Bonner (who actually just slipped it) and rolled out to the three point line. Westbrook and Green must have been confused about whether to switch or not, but they both trailed Parker as he drove into the lane whereby he passed behind him to Bonner, wide open for a three.
- Bonner got the exact same shot on the next play when the defense again failed. Luckily he missed. Brooks called a timeout shortly thereafter and put Thabo on Parker for the rest of the night and had Westbrook guard Mason.
- The defense still switched out a lot on all of those screens, and in the third it didn’t matter who was on Parker, he was hitting everything.
- Green was really horrible not good shooting the ball tonight. He was 4/15 including 0/3 on threes. Grant Long kept telling the TV audience that he needed to keep shooting and that it was a “high percentage shot” for Green. Uhhhm, not to diminish your great nice basketball career, but Green is only shooting .250 for the month of March. Not exactly “high percentage”. How about encouraging him to drive the lane?
- Popovich did a little defense for offense substitution when they were down by four with just a minute or so left. They put in Bowen and took out Mason after the timeout. As soon as he could, he got Mason back in for offense. The funny thing is, Bowen is shooting a better percentage than Mason from the field and from three, and he led the league in 2002.
- Thabo again recorded at three steals. He is a steal machine.
- Our offensive efficiency was a underwhelming 88 points per 100; theirs was 85. Definitely a defensive battle. We lost the shooting battle, but won the other three factors.
I know that watching Russ was at times frustrating, but I think that we all see the potential. His shot selection is so... rookie. And that's what's great. It doesn't seem like something that will plague him for the rest of his career because eventually (especially with a former PG as a coach) he will learn to pick his shots. That doesn't come over night. And, I have every confidence that Russ will put every bit of blood, sweat and tears that it will take to become a great PG. You can see it in the way that he always tries to win the game for the team. Once he learns that being the great slasher AND distributor will earn this team some wins, that is all that we will see. In the mean time, we STILL beat the Spurs with RWO making rookie mistakes.
Green and Westbrook both frustrated me with their shots tonight, and RW with his decisions. HOWEVER, one thing I will say about Russ, he only had 1 turnover. HUGE improvement from the 7 and 8 the last two games. You know he and Brooks must have had a heart to heart about that, and RW came through with some nice focus in that area. Now if we can get him to focus on both turnovers AND shot selection, we'll be in good shape.
And honestly, we played the Spurs, a darn good defensive team. So it doesn't surprise me that the overall FG% was low. I'm surprised that it was 35%, as I figured it would be closer to 40%, but I still knew we'd struggle from the field.
We give KD a hard time for his defense, but he played well last night. 2 steals last night, and that Parker pick-pocket isn't something most people pull off. The box score doesn't say so, but I was sure I saw him with a block on a drive resulting in a miss.
Two plays seemed to stick out in my eyes last night. 1.) Durant's defensive "stand" against Parker when Parker was driving the lane on a semi-fast break and Durant just pick pocketed him. That was awesome and though it isn't telling to the potential improvement of Durant's defense, he didn't do the NBA thing and just let him drive by so that's a plus. 2.) The development of rookie Russell Westbrook, and the occasional "let's forget everything I've learned up until this point in the NBA" drive and shoot possessions. They just baffle me for the most part. I would just assume that there would be a little ball movement on a possession that was as important as the last one the Thunder had, especially when he was 4-16 shooting up until that point. Those are the only times I dislike watching Russell Westbrook.
Aside from that, a really great win for the Thunder!
Not knocking or hating on Russ by the way, I am a huge fan, I just want to see him THINK like Parker/Paul/Nash, asking a lot I know, can he do it?
I might have been influenced by all the "expert" anaylysis I have been reading about Westbrook and how he is not a real point guard, BUT his performance was definitely underwhelming last night. He constantly seems to look for his own shot/drive first before settling into the offense, and at one point in the third it seemed like Scotty Brooks yanked him and put Chucky (shudders) back in for just that reason.
Perhaps it is time to try the ol' "you have to pass off on two possessions before you take a shot or I will bench you" trick my high-school coaches were famous for......
there is another "flaw" in 82games data - it doesn't account for when you play agaisnt the opponent's one (while still playing the two on offense) . . .
one key move was using Durant at the 4 and leaving Rose on the bench the whole second half . . .
Atkins played the 2 defensively while Thabo was guarding Parker . . .
the 82games stats are good - but Thanos's SG data (IMO) is too small uponwhich to draw a conclusion - wait until the season is over, and it should even out - no way is that 23.5 number against (or whatever it is) accurate for a defensive talent like him . . .
Durant spent time at the two and four . . .
Green played both forward positions . . .
Crownice: :O)
Thabo did play 3 alongside Weaver some, but Brooks sort of flipped Weaver, Durant, Green and Thabo around to get people rest. He moves all four around between the 2 and four. Atkins never played the 2 I don't think.
http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20090316&game=SASOKC
The Sefolosha at SF data appears to be based on 82games assuming he mostly played SF with Weaver at SG. Agree or disagree?
That was accidental.
Crow mixed-
Sefolosha - Durant against Phoenix was about -15 and it started out that way to the same level in the first quarter.
But +10 net the rest of the way to get it down to -5.
Something to check. May take time.
Folks watch Durant on offense. Hope the guys are watching Thabo on defense.
Thabo might be an even better big play defender by results than every play.
By 82games he is far better on this team at SF. The SG numbers are amazingly bad. But these numbers are of course not perfect and early.
Nice post game summary Joe.
Between you and Royce things get covered.
If/when the Spurs fall short this season it will probably be because they don't attack the rim enough. They went heavy on the 3 pt game. Maybe too far.
Thunder right now are kinda the reverse but just as Presti is beginning to try to balance offense - defense maybe he gets around to balancing drive and spot up shooting.
I think more than anything tonight, it was the overall turnaround in taking care of the ball. The first quarter we had six turnovers. For the rest of the game, we had five.
And that's four in a row at home and 12-6 since New Year's Eve.
Weaver was also great defensively - especially in the 2nd half . . .
agree with the +/- chart - it's hard to look at it short term (game by game) and take it seriously - the numbers mean little to those that watched the whole game - long term (of course) it has value . . .
agreed - Thabo defended Parker most of the second half - and that's where the action was on that side of the ball.
Westbrook (as usual) did his best to lose it late - they HAVE to do something different - is Durant NOT able to start the offense late??? People are trying to hype him up as the next superstar - superstars don't watch at the end of games . . .
What's really funny about this game and boxscore is that all of the starters are negative on the +/- and all of the bench players are negative for the Thunder. But, to me, the bench didn't win this game. Collison was dominant, but Weaver was quiet (good on defense)and Atkins was really mostly not standing out. I can't remember seeing a game where a team won and all it's starters were negative. Weird. I guess it shows that the unadjusted +/- is just a bit flawed.
To me, Thabo is the MVP of the game.