1/4 | G38: Oklahoma City Thunder at Portland Trail Blazers - 9:30PM CST

[Old Man Game]

this has been a very impressive game defensively for terrance ferguson. c.j. has been in a cage and he's doing his job on switches and help. i'm really impressed.

And we aren't even to the All Star break of his sophomore season. He's going to be good ya'all. Like, not Roberson level defensively, but still really good. You can tell his got pretty good instincts for it and he's taking pride in it.

[Old Man Game]

Antonio Daniels has become really good on the post game show. He was like, 'last year I'd have to complain about how poorly officiated this game was and its why they lost. This year I can just say this was a poorly officiated game but point out that they won in spite of it.'

[spearsy23]

Antonio Daniels has become really good on the post game show. He was like, 'last year I'd have to complain about how poorly officiated this game was and its why they lost. This year I can just say this was a poorly officiated game but point out that they won in spite of it.'

He has his 'old man yells at clouds' moments, but I respect him for calling out problems that he sees.

[Old Man Game]

Antonio Daniels has become really good on the post game show. He was like, 'last year I'd have to complain about how poorly officiated this game was and its why they lost. This year I can just say this was a poorly officiated game but point out that they won in spite of it.'

He has his 'old man yells at clouds' moments, but I respect him for calling out problems that he sees.

Between he and Chris Fisher gently ribbing Michael Cage from time to time the entire broadcast has been brought up quite a bit over the course of the last couple years. Remember how terrible it was early on during the team's time in OKC. Malik Rose was just painful as the studio analyst.

[slick_watts]

if you go to portland fan sites they will tell a different story about our pnr defense. that the blitz and show is what disrupted them so much in the 2nd half.

and they are right. i don't understand this about thunder fans lamenting adams showing on pnr. adams doing this is the basis of our entire defense. the problem is that the guard has to set the angle properly and stay in the play or else it's meaningless and actually harmful. in the first half, westbrook was getting himself out of the play and not 'guiding' the ball handler properly. it makes it seem like steven adams is in outer space for some reason. but watch in 2h when ferguson or george were on the ball and adams showed, it disrupted portland's offense time and again.

there are going to be times where you give up a shot at the rim doing this but the positives for the thunder faaaaaar outweigh the negatives. i think the disconnect between thunder sites and portland sites on our pnr defense after this game is hilarious though.

[SecondTake]

Takeaways;

1. Nerlens needs more minutes. He's a much better pnr defender than Adams, is a lot quicker switching on guards and is a more disruptive defender against quicker lineups.

2. The Adams PNR defense is some BS. Everytime he goes to trap he's leaving the basket completely open with the opposing big underneath it. It's executed extremely poorly and he's not a good fit for it to begin with because he's too slow to make it work. He's a giant body that can box out and defend slow big man 1 on 1 pretty well - why doesn't he just stay tight on his man and let our wing players defend opposing wings 1 on 1? We have one of the best 1 on 1 defensive units in the NBA, we don't need to be trapping with a slow footed big man.

3. Schroder shot poorly but did a great job getting the bench involved. when guys are making themselves open and hitting shots he has no problem setting them up. Patterson made some three's and Schroder kept feeding him til he went cold. He was feeding Nader and Noel too. He's a good bench PG that needs guys around him to do their job so he can do his.

4. Seems whenever WB is having a good offensive game his defense slips and vice versa. It would be nice to have him bring the kind of defense he did during December to every game, including ones where he's making shots. He either gives you 18 points and 6 steals or 30 points and 1 steal.

[slick_watts]

2. The Adams PNR defense is some BS. Everytime he goes to trap he's leaving the basket completely open with the opposing big underneath it. It's executed extremely poorly and he's not a good fit for it to begin with because he's too slow to make it work. He's a giant body that can box out and defend slow big man 1 on 1 pretty well - why doesn't he just stay tight on his man and let our wing players defend opposing wings 1 on 1? We have one of the best 1 on 1 defensive units in the NBA, we don't need to be trapping with a slow footed big man.

this statement can't be farther from the truth. read some blazersedge. see what opponents think about our showing on pnr and how it affects them. adams showing on pnr is a staple feature of our defense and one of the reasons why it's been so productive forcing turnovers.

[Bergmaniac]

Nerlens Noel did very well defensively, but he played almost exclusively against when Lillard was on the bench and didn't play against Nurkic at all IIRC, which makes defending the PNR a lot easier.

[CROklahoma]

Erm, he litteraly killed Lillard 2 possesions in a row, completely distrupting their rhytm.

[Pillendreher]

[SecondTake]

2. The Adams PNR defense is some BS. Everytime he goes to trap he's leaving the basket completely open with the opposing big underneath it. It's executed extremely poorly and he's not a good fit for it to begin with because he's too slow to make it work. He's a giant body that can box out and defend slow big man 1 on 1 pretty well - why doesn't he just stay tight on his man and let our wing players defend opposing wings 1 on 1? We have one of the best 1 on 1 defensive units in the NBA, we don't need to be trapping with a slow footed big man.

this statement can't be farther from the truth. read some blazersedge. see what opponents think about our showing on pnr and how it affects them. adams showing on pnr is a staple feature of our defense and one of the reasons why it's been so productive forcing turnovers.

Adams defense works when he traps well inside or at the edge of the paint where he can recover if need be or the man defending the pick can get to the rim for a quick contest. The problem is that Adams starts trapping near the 3 point line creating a wide open basket for opposing bigs. It's been endlessly exploited by every team with a competent big and pg. Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%. A bunch of those baskets were open dunks and layups because he was left open at the basket thanks to an Adams trap outside the paint. He averages 14 points on under 50% - our defense failed on him. I've seen a bunch of plays with open dunks and layups by Gobert, Ayton and other bigs that get left wide open at the basket.

Those forced turnovers don't make up for the open dunks we're giving opponents.

We also have a team of elite defenders with tremendous length - why are we trapping guys so far out when PG, Ferg or Grant are defending them? They can stick to their man and contest while Adams can box out the big and contest at the rim himself.

[thekaoswithin]

2. The Adams PNR defense is some BS. Everytime he goes to trap he's leaving the basket completely open with the opposing big underneath it. It's executed extremely poorly and he's not a good fit for it to begin with because he's too slow to make it work. He's a giant body that can box out and defend slow big man 1 on 1 pretty well - why doesn't he just stay tight on his man and let our wing players defend opposing wings 1 on 1? We have one of the best 1 on 1 defensive units in the NBA, we don't need to be trapping with a slow footed big man.

this statement can't be farther from the truth. read some blazersedge. see what opponents think about our showing on pnr and how it affects them. adams showing on pnr is a staple feature of our defense and one of the reasons why it's been so productive forcing turnovers.

Adams defense works when he traps well inside or at the edge of the paint where he can recover if need be or the man defending the pick can get to the rim for a quick contest. The problem is that Adams starts trapping near the 3 point line creating a wide open basket for opposing bigs. It's been endlessly exploited by every team with a competent big and pg. Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%. A bunch of those baskets were open dunks and layups because he was left open at the basket thanks to an Adams trap outside the paint. He averages 14 points on under 50% - our defense failed on him. I've seen a bunch of plays with open dunks and layups by Gobert, Ayton and other bigs that get left wide open at the basket.

Those forced turnovers don't make up for the open dunks we're giving opponents.

We also have a team of elite defenders with tremendous length - why are we trapping guys so far out when PG, Ferg or Grant are defending them? They can stick to their man and contest while Adams can box out the big and contest at the rim himself.

I don't have any data to back me up, but that situation forces passes to the wing or long passes to the rim. Both are great opportunities to get steals, which is something we've seen consistently from pretty much the whole team. Sometimes we give up easy buckets, but I can understand trying to maximize our open court opportunities given our half-court anemia.

[slick_watts]

Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%.

and portland scored 97.2pp100 with nurkic on the court that game, 16pp100 less than they usually do when he's in. their starters scored 105.8pp100 in the game, about 10pp100 less than they average.

do you know a big reason why? because our pnr show hurts them more than it helps them. yes, they got some easy ones here or there. but their offense was putrid. you're missing all the times their pnr got ICE'd into oblivion, outright denied, or passes were deflected / stolen as a result of the pnr show.

our pnr defense is fine when it is executed properly. you're whining about something that got excellent results.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%.

and portland scored 97.2pp100 with nurkic on the court that game, 16pp100 less than they usually do when he's in. their starters scored 105.8pp100 in the game, about 10pp100 less than they average.

do you know a big reason why? because our pnr show hurts them more than it helps them. yes, they got some easy ones here or there. but their offense was putrid. you're missing all the times their pnr got ICE'd into oblivion, outright denied, or passes were deflected / stolen as a result of the pnr show.

our pnr defense is fine when it is executed properly. you're whining about something that got excellent results.

Youre wasting your energy on boxscore watchers slick..

People see a couple highlights and some boxscore numbers and assume they kjow what happened. That.. as well as a poor understanding of pnr defense and what really goes into making it successful

[ThunderBolt]

Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%.

and portland scored 97.2pp100 with nurkic on the court that game, 16pp100 less than they usually do when he's in. their starters scored 105.8pp100 in the game, about 10pp100 less than they average.

do you know a big reason why? because our pnr show hurts them more than it helps them. yes, they got some easy ones here or there. but their offense was putrid. you're missing all the times their pnr got ICE'd into oblivion, outright denied, or passes were deflected / stolen as a result of the pnr show.

our pnr defense is fine when it is executed properly. you're whining about something that got excellent results.

So is there any way to track how many of the breakdowns from a guy taking the wrong angle are attributed to a specific player?

[slick_watts]

Nurk just dropped 24 on 64%.

and portland scored 97.2pp100 with nurkic on the court that game, 16pp100 less than they usually do when he's in. their starters scored 105.8pp100 in the game, about 10pp100 less than they average.

do you know a big reason why? because our pnr show hurts them more than it helps them. yes, they got some easy ones here or there. but their offense was putrid. you're missing all the times their pnr got ICE'd into oblivion, outright denied, or passes were deflected / stolen as a result of the pnr show.

our pnr defense is fine when it is executed properly. you're whining about something that got excellent results.

So is there any way to track how many of the breakdowns from a guy taking the wrong angle are attributed to a specific player?

not without going through a bunch of clips. used to be easy with synergy. i was gonna post a few but yesterday when i checked none of the clips from the portland game were available.

[ThunderBolt]

and portland scored 97.2pp100 with nurkic on the court that game, 16pp100 less than they usually do when he's in. their starters scored 105.8pp100 in the game, about 10pp100 less than they average.

do you know a big reason why? because our pnr show hurts them more than it helps them. yes, they got some easy ones here or there. but their offense was putrid. you're missing all the times their pnr got ICE'd into oblivion, outright denied, or passes were deflected / stolen as a result of the pnr show.

our pnr defense is fine when it is executed properly. you're whining about something that got excellent results.

So is there any way to track how many of the breakdowns from a guy taking the wrong angle are attributed to a specific player?

not without going through a bunch of clips. used to be easy with synergy. i was gonna post a few but yesterday when i checked none of the clips from the portland game were available.

Unless it's grossly obvious, it would have to be a little bit subjective I would imagine.

[sleestak33]

You see games like this throughout the NBA season where a lesser team just really plays way over their head and for whatever reason the better team just can't seem to get it going and plays like crap on both ends of the court. Hopefully we won't see more than just a few of these stinkers.