Mavs out-offense the Thunder, 135-131
The box score says the Mavericks missed 35 shots. It says Enes Kanter had 16 rebounds, 11 of them defensive. Russell Westbrook had 11, eight being defensive.
That’s what the box score says. I just don’t remember them happening, because I don’t remember the Thunder ever getting 35 stops.
“Both teams made some shots,” Russell Westbrook said. “One team decided to play more defense than the other.”
The Thunder scored 131 points. They got another triple-double from Russell Westbrook (29-11-11, his 10th). They got a career-high 30 (and 16 rebounds) from Enes Kanter. They got a season-high 32 from Anthony Morrow (on 11-16 shooting). They got 19 from Dion Waiters (on 7-15 shooting). They hit 14 3s. They only turned the ball over 11 times. They played the kind of game that should’ve been a 131-110 win.
And yet they lost. Because they couldn’t put together more than two stops (unofficially) in a row.
“I think they had 72 points in the paint,” Scott Brooks said. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Seventy-two?” Steven Adams said. “Jesus. That’s some stuff.”
The Thunder are just a plain bad defensive team right now. They can put together a few isolated performances that mostly are a result of the other team missing shots, but the Thunder aren’t stopping teams. A lot of it has to do with the simple fact they miss Serge Ibaka, they miss Nick Collison, they miss Andre Roberson and they miss Kevin Durant. Tonight against Dallas, Steven Adams picked up his fourth foul 32 seconds into the third quarter, and it left Scott Brooks only one big to play — a rookie, Mitch McGary — against the high functioning Mavs offense. It was a slaughterhouse.
Regardless, because the Thunder can score the hell out of the ball, the roared back to take a 10-point third quarter lead, and appeared to be in position to assume complete control. But the Mavs scored in bunches, and it was somehow, someway, 101-101 heading the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was more of the same. It was definitely a who-has-it-last kind of game, and the Mavs hit the necessary big shots down the stretch, most notably Chandler Parsons who knocked down a difficult turnaround jumper with 13 seconds left.
Still: The Thunder had their chance, and Westbrook fired a wild 3, trying to draw a foul, then chased down his rebound to heave from the Golden State corner where he once hit a game-winner. With Anthony Morrow screaming for the ball to his right, Westbrook launched awkwardly again, missing front rim. And that was it. No more seven-seed talk. And back to only a game up in the loss column on the Pelicans with three difficult games ahead, at the Grizzlies and home against the Rockets and Spurs.
“It definitely was really tough on us because we are trying to push,” Kanter said. “We are playing for something. We are trying to get a playoff spot, so I think that this really hurt us, but we cannot just sit here and worry about it.”
It seemed like a popular message postgame that the Thunder are trying to work in new pieces still, and while Brooks made sure to say that’s not an excuse, it kind of sounds like one. They just don’t have the personnel to defend. People are focused on Kanter’s limitations, and while there are some very obvious ones, a big problem is the guards continue to put him in compromising spots. Westbrook was terrible defensively at stopping the ball. So was D.J. Augustin and Morrow. Kanter was a turnstile, because he was the last line to try and clean up what was already made a mess by the perimeter guys.
“It was just our communication,” Adams said. “That played a huge role in why we got mismatched in lot of things and late in a lot of our coverages and stuff. That’s pretty much it.
This is where the Thunder are, like it or not: They have to outscore people. Sometimes, they can. Sometimes they can’t. But until the end of this season, it’s going to produce these kind of infuriating nights because they won’t be able to string together wins, especially against good teams, without providing some level of resistance.
NOTES:
- Steven Adams sprained his right ankle at the very end of the game: “Just going to see how it goes,” he said. He was icing it in a big bucket, but the good news was, he was walking without crutches or anything, and didn’t leave in a walking boot. I’d say he has a chance to play against the Grizzlies.
- Adams gave some great defensive insight: “It’s our help side. I guess trusting other people to get the low, the weakside help. Just because, say I’m on Dirk, I have to stay out on the perimeter sort of thing. So other players have to come and get there. And Enes is doing a good job for the timeframe he’s been here and getting there and stuff. It’s not just him. The guards have to do it, because like I said, they have a tough lineup, they can put in different players who aren’t used to that position yet.”
- More Adams: “It ain’t just more blocks, because Serge is just a freak at that. He’s really good at the timing. My thing is just the early help, trying to deter the drive, trying to discourage the drive, try to make them make the extra pass and close out, and I’m just taking the chance really. Just play it all by chances. That’s a 30-something percent shot, and we can give that up than a layup. That’s all I play.”
- The Mavericks scored 135 points in regulation and only hit four 3s. That’s pretty crazy.
- For like four minutes there in the third quarter, the Thunder played some pretty good defense.
- Because of foul trouble, Scott Brooks had to go with Steve Novak guarding Dirk for a stretch in the second quarter. Novak said after the game the last time he guarded Dirk was in 2003, in practice.
- Westbrook was weirdly disengaged a lot defensively. Got caught ball-watching in no-man’s land at least three times that I saw.
- How nervous were you when Westbrook’s mask fell off and he had to play a possession with it? On a scale of Kevin Durant’s first foot surgery to Kevin Durant’s third foot surgery, I was probably right at Kevin Durant’s second foot surgery.
- Morrow with 32 off the bench tonight. Is it just that ridiculous to throw his name into the Sixth Man of the Year conversation? Lou Williams seems like the most likely candidate because of his points per game, but Morrow impacts the game off the bench in a huge way. I’m just saying maybe he deserves a mention.
- There’s a ton of focus about Kanter’s defense, but I’ll say this: You have a guy that puts up 30 and 16 and he can do snowangels on the defensive end for all I care. Obviously defense is what’s going to take him from good to great, but he’s 22, and if anything, maybe the defensive thing will help lower his offseason asking price.
- It would be nice to have had, say, Kendrick Perkins on the floor for 18 minutes or so tonight.
- Kanter took his first 3 with the Thunder tonight, and hit it from the left corner.
- Westbrook took 11 3s. That’s not a good stat when it comes to winning.
- Westbrook turned it over six of the 11 times the Thunder gave it away.
- Dion Waiters played a good game, kind of. Attacked the basket, hit a couple 3s.
- One thing I’m kind of excited to see, assuming Adams can go: How OKC’s two towers match up with Memphis. Could actually be a decent matchup for the Thunder because one thing Kanter can do is defend on the block a little. Put him on Z-Bo, and the Thunder might be alright. I don’t know how Friday will go, but it’s a shame the Thunder couldn’t at least flirt with the idea they could draw Memphis in the opening round. Might’ve had a shot.
Next up: At the Grizzlies on Friday
