SD2042 wrote:Hopefully the team will have made the neccessary adjustments to counter the debacle they went through on Saturday.
1. Recognize when the double teams converges, that means someone is open and that player need to take the shot forcing the Thunder to pay for leaving the man wide open.
2. Defensive rotations have to be tight and force the shooters to work for their shots.
3. I think the key here will be to double team Westbrook(Lee and Conley) Take him out of the equation will leave KD to pick up the majority of the offensive load. As long as the others keep to their defensive assignments.
4. Work better as a team. Don't fall into the savior mode where certain ppl have to bail them out nearly every possession. It's a team effort. Either they fight like one, or they fall like one. The decision is their.
To me, the biggest problem was the Grizzlies shooting woes. Obviously 18-31 on FT's is atrocious. And the Grizzlies missed their first 17 shots outside the paint. There were a lot of open 3's throughout the game and they either hesitated or bricked them. Particularly Lee with no 3 point attempts and Conley (0 for 6) have to provide more outside shooting. With Prince out and TA and JJ likely seeing increased minutes, I'd like to see Leuer and his 47% clip from downtown (albeit on limited attempts: 23-49) get a chance to be that floor-spacing big and provide some energy. I've always thought he was a superior player to Davis anyway. We've got to do more to free up space in the paint.
Defensively, I think we know the drill. All you can do is pester KD and make as uncomfortable as you can. I think we could do a much better job of tracking him, both in transition and half-court. We lost him alot in the open court, and in the half-court I think we helped off him too much. I'll live with other guys taking open mid-range shots or contested layups. We should try to limit KD to as few 3 point opportunities as possible.
For Westbrook, I think we've gotta make him beat us. I think Allen or Lee needs to check him early. He got in a rhythm early against Conley by rising up over the smaller guard and knocking down jumpers. Lee can do a better job of making him put it on the floor and use his (at times) questionable passing and decision making going towards the basket. This team is at their most vulnerable when Westbrook is trying to do too much.
And I think overall, we have to make their bigs work harder. Offensively I think Lee and Conley need to put more pressure on them when their man goes over a screen - particularly Conley off the dribble. Get into Ibaka's body and make him risk fouling. The only perimeter guy I really saw trying to do that was TA, and that's not really who we want.
Defensively, Leuer (if he gets a chance) or JJ at the 4 can put a little more pressure on those guys by spacing the floor, attacking off the bounce, and crashing the boards. The shooting touch can pull the bigs away from the basket where guys like Perkins and Collison are not particularly effective, and the athleticism off the bounce or attacking the offensive boards can force the perimeter guys to collapse into the paint, which limits the impact of the transition game, particularly off long rebounds.
But bottom line is we just have to execute a little better defensively, and make freaking shots offensively. Those are the keys.
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