Without PG we actually went to the pick and roll and had success despite Russ still not quite being Russ. We need to feast on it even when all three are on the court.
Sorry Russ. Had to give the votes to Steven and Melo. Steven was an absolute beast tonight. He was a weapon of mass destruction. Olympic Melo was in full effect as well.
Good to see the team can score north of 100 pts even with PG non being much of a factor. Need to work on establishing a good floor for offensive production.
i marked down some plays from this game that will illustrate the difference with how we perimeter rotate w/dre or george on the court v. when guys like grant or huestis or abrines are on the court. it was very noticeable especially during the first half and 3Q after roberson sat and george was in foul trouble. patterson is really good at mitigating penetration and anticipating those break downs.
i'll post the links later to stats.nba.com clips of them.
adams has been terrific. made domas look like a little boy.
i don't like westbrook-felton lineups at all.
felton and patterson are our only 'shooters' who will go in the corner. at some point billy has to convince either melo or george to spot up in the corner with some regularity while all three are in.
i thought we played it dangerous for awhile making a lot of silly passes and high risk plays. works against indy at home but too many unnecessary turnovers from rw / ca.
i'm sure the jokers here will look at oladipo's numbers and assume roberson was bad or whatever but him and george and adams shut the pacers down when all three were in despite a lot of gambling by westbrook and melo quitting on rotations frequently. melo had great effort from the free throw line extended down tonight though on defense. he is not the type to run out to contest a three from there.
Good game. Melo is playing really good. I hope he continue to give this effort through out the season. He made some turnovers when he played as SF. Melo playing with Grant-Patterson doesnt make sense to me. Play Melo at PF no matter its first unit or second unit.
I think Huestis should get more minutes. He fits better than Robertson/J.Grant.
Donovan need to find out how to use PG. 1on1's and pull up shots from him wont be enough. We should play some sets to utilize him. He can finish on the rim and he can shoot 3pt shot coming off the screen. He has both threats to the defense. We should be able to use him better on offense.
Was great to see Westbrook passing the ball to Roberson when he was open to go for the easy 2. That kind of plays are very important and were part of our success in the playoffs 2 years ago. That's also why we need to keep a relatively fast pace so Roberson can be effective on the offensive end.
InTheSabonus wrote:Russ/Adams pick and roll is our killer play this season.
Well thats what i have predicted at first.
Russ/Adams p&r wasnt bad last season. Now you dont have Kanter or Sabonis clogging the paint. Melo stretches the floor on elite level. They cant deny him. It creates more and more space to operate for Russ/Adams p&r.
PG going to find his place on offense too. His presence would mean sth for opponent defenses too. If we use him with some screen plays like K.Thompson-G.Hayward he'll get interest from the defense too. And that'd help Russ/Adams p&r even more.
Nice to see them play efficiently (at least shooting the ball, too many turnovers, but a lot of them force the Pacers to take the ball out of bounds, and that was helpful).
Adams I think played his best game of the season, and was a great outlet offensively. They need him to stay active on the boards like he has the past few games.
Melo actually consistently hit the open shots... took a couple of 3s that started out open, but were a bit rushed. I think he's better when he fakes it and takes a couple of bounces in. Fact of the matter is, he's got an all time great mid range game. Happy he's not totally neglecting it, despite taking a career high in 3s.
Russell seems to be working himself into form. He plays so fast, but some of the well intended passes when he's going 110mph are all over the place. Would be nice to see his athletic gift used to be as dominant a defender though, because he could be.
The surprise of the year for OKC is the play of Felton. He's notorious for playing himself off a team 1 year, and playing well the next. Depends on what type of shape he's in. Looks good
M2J wrote:Nice to see them play efficiently (at least shooting the ball, too many turnovers, but a lot of them force the Pacers to take the ball out of bounds, and that was helpful).
Adams I think played his best game of the season, and was a great outlet offensively. They need him to stay active on the boards like he has the past few games.
Melo actually consistently hit the open shots... took a couple of 3s that started out open, but were a bit rushed. I think he's better when he fakes it and takes a couple of bounces in. Fact of the matter is, he's got an all time great mid range game. Happy he's not totally neglecting it, despite taking a career high in 3s.
Russell seems to be working himself into form. He plays so fast, but some of the well intended passes when he's going 110mph are all over the place. Would be nice to see his athletic gift used to be as dominant a defender though, because he could be.
Great bounce back game. Friday should be fun
To me he was great all games. It's just that he faced Gobert and KAT last 2 games.
That play where PG13 leaned into the 3 around the screen and airballed it felt symbolic of his problems this season. Just trying to hard to make things happen. He's gotta calm down and let it come to him.
INDIANA PACERS at OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER 
Thunder Upcoming 5
MIN 7PM CST
CHI 7PM CST
MIL 7PM CST
BOS 8:30PM CST
POR 8PM CST
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