2/23 | G59: Sacramento Kings at Oklahoma City Thunder - 7PM CST

[hardenASG13]

so the sample sizes here are getting comparable that this is getting strange, and the ultimate strength of this team is impossible to tell.

first 28 games this year the thunder were one of the best defenses of all time, -7.3pp100 relative to league average. 7th best since 1979. in the 21 games since, the thunder are 22nd in the nba, a smidge ahead of houston during that period.

that's an insane thing on its own but the offense switching gears almost precisely in the same timeframe makes it even more unusual.

is it schematic? scouting? injuries? did the thunder have insane luck to start the year? bad luck the last 21? what's the connection with the offense, if any?

the team will struggle to get out of the 1st round imo with the defense playing at this level. had the thunder not started out at a historic pace we'd probably be 10-15 ranked defense on the year right now instead of hanging onto top 5 by a thread.

They started playing an even faster paced, aggressive style, going for steals and turnovers, and pushing even more. They have the fastest pace in the league since December, driven by Westbrook. They are scoring and allowing alot more points, and currently playing extremely good basketball, as evidenced by them winning games. Westbrooks shooting is coming around too.

[Old Man Game]

Ferguson is having a very good year but after watching Donovan Mitchell and Hield killing him, that's when you miss Roberson

YEP

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Yea, Roberson NEVER got lit up by guys like that.....all the time during the course of a season

Was the defense better with him out there overall? Yes. Do we win that game with him last night? I think so.

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[sleestak33]

Probably a little fatigue from the Utah game as PG and Grant combined to shoot only 6-28 but they were still right there with a good chance to win this game and even though Russ drew a charge with that last play (and it was the correct call) I still like that he took it to the basket. I can't say how awesome it is to not have to watch Patterson and Roberson and Morris made some progress starting to work his way into OKC's system and looks like he's going to be a huge upgrade as he will absorb all of Patterson's minutes and that guy has been pretty much a disaster ever since he came to OKC. It's clear they have now moved on from him but that's something they should have done a long time ago just like I've been saying for months. It's just hilarious that people in the local media and many of this message board were calling for Patterson to start this year. Just unbelievable... Sucks to lose a close one but you can see this team is really going to be salty by the time the playoffs start. Looks like Russ is getting his shot back to some degree.

[slick_watts]

They started playing an even faster paced

thunder pace through january 5 was 102.9. since then it is 103.4. barely any difference.

going for steals and turnovers

except getting fewer steals and forcing fewer turnovers is one of the reasons the defense has dropped off a cliff. thunder opponents had a tov% of 15.3% through january 5 which led the league. since then it's 12.8%. huge difference. through january 5 the thunder had the 16th best turnover differential in league history. the drop off on this has fueled the defensive collapse.

They are scoring and allowing alot more points, and currently playing extremely good basketball, as evidenced by them winning games. Westbrooks shooting is coming around too.

the team has played worse. SRS at january 5 was 5.31. we dropped a point of SRS over this timespan and that's despite the offense exploding. this goes to show just how horrific the defense has performed. thunder aren't going anywhere playing like a bottom 10 defense.

[ThunderBolt]

YEP

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Yea, Roberson NEVER got lit up by guys like that.....all the time during the course of a season

Was the defense better with him out there overall? Yes. Do we win that game with him last night? I think so.

Sent from my Pixel using RealGM mobile app

We’ve come full circle and now we are looping back around like a dog chasing its tail. It used to be the Roberson could only do one thing well-defense. (Although defense isn’t just one thing. ) Now what he does great isn’t even worthy of the occasional spot minutes that have been suggested by his haters.

“Really could have used a good three point shooter last night like joe Harris because we were struggling.”

“Yea but at only 47% from three it’s not like he never misses.”

[slick_watts]

Yea, Roberson NEVER got lit up by guys like that.....all the time during the course of a season

Was the defense better with him out there overall? Yes. Do we win that game with him last night? I think so.

Sent from my Pixel using RealGM mobile app

We’ve come full circle and now we are looping back around like a dog chasing its tail. It used to be the Roberson could only do one thing well-defense. (Although defense isn’t just one thing. ) Now what he does great isn’t even worthy of the occasional spot minutes that have been suggested by his haters.

“Really could have used a good three point shooter last night like joe Harris because we were struggling.”

“Yea but at only 47% from three it’s not like he never misses.”

it's just utterly untenable. the starters last year with dre were better than the starters this year despite not having mvp-level paul george and carrying carmelo anthony's decaying corpse around their necks.

replacing ferguson with 100% 'dre would make the starters better.

[SecondTake]

Man, **** this. All season long these bum ass bitches never have never missed against us. They have made at least 10 shots each **** game that have absolutely no business going in. And then of course the refs take over. **** that.

This is getting repetitive now. Stop blaming every game on opponents running an insane wave of luck and start admitting that our defense has turned in to a dumpster fire. You like numbers and the numbers clearly indicate that with a pretty big sample size now.

[Bergmaniac]

I thought you played pretty good D in this game, especially considering the tiredness. George looked a step slow at times, which is normal after the last game, and you weren't as aggressive as usual in trying to force deflections and get steals, but almost all of the Kings shots were contested, and you allowed very few offensive rebounds. Too much fouling for sure, bu Sacramento's offensive rating was slightly below their season average, which given the circumstances is not bad. If George wasn't a shadow of himself on offense, you would have won.

[Pillendreher]

Man, **** this. All season long these bum ass bitches never have never missed against us. They have made at least 10 shots each **** game that have absolutely no business going in. And then of course the refs take over. **** that.

This is getting repetitive now. Stop blaming every game on opponents running an insane wave of luck and start admitting that our defense has turned in to a dumpster fire. You like numbers and the numbers clearly indicate that with a pretty big sample size now.

The numbers also indicate that opponents have not been missing from anywhere against us. Unless the first half of the season was the biggest fluke in NBA history, bad luck and variance is most certainly at play here. Whatever luck we had the first half of the season when it comes to opponents making shots has completely flipped and is now hurting us big time. I've also gone on the record saying that you can't expect to play well defensively if you let opponents take open shots.

[SecondTake]

Man, **** this. All season long these bum ass bitches never have never missed against us. They have made at least 10 shots each **** game that have absolutely no business going in. And then of course the refs take over. **** that.

This is getting repetitive now. Stop blaming every game on opponents running an insane wave of luck and start admitting that our defense has turned in to a dumpster fire. You like numbers and the numbers clearly indicate that with a pretty big sample size now.

The numbers also indicate that opponents have not been missing from anywhere against us. Unless the first half of the season was the biggest fluke in NBA history, bad luck and variance is most certainly at play here. Whatever luck we had the first half of the season when it comes to opponents making shots has completely flipped and is now hurting us big time. I've also gone on the record saying that you can't expect to play well defensively if you let opponents take open shots.

Look at WB's steal numbers during the first half of the season and the second half - the difference in those numbers is pretty much the difference in opponent turnovers, and the lack of it is really hurting the defense. Guys are also not contesting that well and Ferg has turned in to a foul machine again (although still playing good D)

The sample size is so massive now that I have a hard time attributing much of it to luck. Guys are sagging off. Not playing passing lanes like early in the season. Adams looks tired. Nader can't defend and yet he's taking minutes from Burton who can. Shooters are being left open to collapse the paint, yet we're not even defending the paint well.

There's so many problems with the defense. Would you acknowledge a severe deterioration on defense during this stretch of games at least? What % do you attribute to bad luck and what to defense? I get the impression that you're attributing 80% to bad luck and 20% to defense, but I'd go the other way.

[Pillendreher]

This is getting repetitive now. Stop blaming every game on opponents running an insane wave of luck and start admitting that our defense has turned in to a dumpster fire. You like numbers and the numbers clearly indicate that with a pretty big sample size now.

The numbers also indicate that opponents have not been missing from anywhere against us. Unless the first half of the season was the biggest fluke in NBA history, bad luck and variance is most certainly at play here. Whatever luck we had the first half of the season when it comes to opponents making shots has completely flipped and is now hurting us big time. I've also gone on the record saying that you can't expect to play well defensively if you let opponents take open shots.

Look at WB's steal numbers during the first half of the season and the second half - the difference in those numbers is pretty much the difference in opponent turnovers, and the lack of it is really hurting the defense. Guys are also not contesting that well and Ferg has turned in to a foul machine again (although still playing good D)

The sample size is so massive now that I have a hard time attributing much of it to luck. Guys are sagging off. Not playing passing lanes like early in the season. Adams looks tired. Nader can't defend and yet he's taking minutes from Burton who can. Shooters are being left open to collapse the paint, yet we're not even defending the paint well.

There's so many problems with the defense. Would you acknowledge a severe deterioration on defense during this stretch of games at least? What % do you attribute to bad luck and what to defense? I get the impression that you're attributing 80% to bad luck and 20% to defense, but I'd go the other way.

I'm agreeing with this. But that doesn't mean that luck is not playing a part in all of this. That's why I've said that you have to look at the issue from both sides: The Spurs started 13-13 from 3 or something like that, but we also didn't make it hard on them to miss. There has to be more to our defense than trying to get deflections and then hoping the opponent misses.