Wednesday Bolts: 11.27.19

ICYMI: Steve Kerr was salty about Danilo Gallinari’s ability to draw fouls, and I love it:

Steve Kerr on Eric Paschall (who had three offensive fouls) needing to adjust night to night to different NBA personnel: “Gallinari is a tough guy to face because of his ability to flop and draw fouls and flail around and still fool the refs after all these years.” pic.twitter.com/n4N9tYOchX
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 26, 2019

Joe Mussatto (The Oklahoman) reports that Billy Donovan wants the Thunder to play faster. “‘It’s not so much we need to come down and take a shot in the first six seconds,’ Donovan said. ‘But what we need to do is initiate our offense in the first four or five seconds, so we have some time to work off each other and we have more time on the clock to do more things.'”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander announced his commitment to play for Team Canada in its pursuit to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020:

I've known and made a promise to myself that representing my country is something I will continue to do and as my bro @BeMore27 publicly announced his commitment, I too will be there to do my best to help @CanBball get to Tokyo!
— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (@shaiglalex) November 27, 2019

ESPN’s latest NBA power rankings (published before the win over the Golden State Warriors) drops the Thunder to no. 20: “The Thunder are five games under .500 but have a net margin of only minus-0.7. They are 1-7 in two-possession games, featuring a three-game losing streak last week against the Los Angeles teams, all by fewer than five points. One culprit that needs addressing: coming out flat after halftime. The Thunder are a minus-18.4 per 100 possessions in the third quarter.”

NBA.com placed OKC at no. 17: “The Thunder were right there with the Clippers and Lakers (twice) last week; All three games were within two points in the final minute. But the three losses dropped OKC to 0-6 on the road, 4-8 in games that were within five in the last five, and 1-5 in a stretch of six straight games against teams no worse than the 9-6 Pacers. Now they’ll play four straight against teams with losing records, with a decent chance to get their first road win on Monday in San Francisco. They got some good bench minutes last week (Dennis Schroder was a team-best plus-17 over the three games), but their starting lineup allowed more than 122 points per 100 possessions in its 38 minutes against the two L.A. teams. Among the 18 lineups that have played at least 100 minutes this season, only the Wizards’ starting lineup (121.4 points allowed per 100) have been worse defensively than the that of the Thunder (117.0), who continue to await an eventual return from Andre Roberson.”

Royce Young (ESPN) with an absolutely fascinating article on the various “free-throw shenanigans” that players employ to force their opponents into missing one of the easiest shots in basketball. “The variations on this move are many: There’s crossing the lane at the very last moment to try to disrupt a routine. There’s yelling out directions about boxing out or about what man you have right as the shot is being released. There are coordinated tricks, like an assistant coach hollering out instructions and the player quickly turning around to ‘listen’ as the shot is going up. There is bending over to tie a shoe.”