The third time's the charm - First Round Series vs Portland

[acheema0]

After sleeping on it, I thought we played fine. Getting 33 or however many 3 pointers up against Portland's defense which is built to try and limit 3PA is a win, imo. Just have to hit (duh). I liked Russ attacking the rim and not falling in love with the midrange which they'll give him all series. 2 adjustments I'd like to see however:
1 - Can the Steve post-ups against Kanter. Post defense is the easiest part of defense for him because he doesn't have to move laterally, and it's not like we're cutting off the ball on these. If Collins/Leonard are in the game I'm fine with Steve posting up, but with Kanter it's gotta be PnR.
2 - Cut down Dennis's minutes. They left him completely alone on 3's and he most likely wont be able to punish them there, and he cant guard any of their 2 guards on defense. Even CJ who's a pretty small sg can just rise over him and ball-rack him. If he plays this many minutes again, I could see them going to some more small-small pick and roll to get him onto favorable matchups.

[SecondTake]

Looks like "can't play Kanter" doesn't really hold true. 20 points and 18 rebounds (7 offensive) in 34 minutes and he outplayed Adams. Like I said the entire time he was here in OKC...the guy was massively underplayed. This game is the Thunder season in a nutshell. The continued bizarre insistence on shooting 3s when they suck at it (they were 5-33) bit them in the ass again and the continued starting of an incompetent offensive shooting guard (16 minutes 3 points for Ferguson) plus a huge lack of respect for shot selection costs them another loss. At least their defense got better after the 1st qtr. where they gave up 39 points. That's about the only bright spot.

Agreed, Portland won by 5 points, but Kanter was +15. That's a ridiculous impact for a single player. Portland, as a team, was -10 without him on the court.

+/- doesn't equal impact. Especially not in a single game.

How about these numbers you just posted a minute ago? they must indicate something since you posted them. The bolded is especially curious.


Westbrook guarded by Lillard: 109.8 ORtG for the Thunder (56 Possessions)
George guarded by Aminu: 129.4 ORtG for the Thunder (34 Possessions)
George guarded by Harkless: 91.3 ORtG for the Thunder (23 Possessions)
Adams guarded by Kanter: 93.1 ORtG for the Thunder (58 Possessions)
Lillard guarded by Westbrook: 88.9 ORtG for the Trail Blazers (45 Possessions)
Lillard guarded by Schröder: 64.3 ORtG for the Trail Blazers (14 Possessions)
McCollum guarded by Schröder: 92.1 ORtG for the Trail Blazers (38 Possessions)
McCollum guarded by Ferguson: 140.0 ORtG for the Trail Blazers (20 Possessions)
Kanter guarded by Adams: 110.1 ORtG for the Trail Blazers (59 possessions)

[SecondTake]

is this kanter narrative for real? you guys remember the previous season when kanter played all those minutes against san antonio and we beat a 10+ srs team? kanter sucks, but it's not like we haven't played him in a playoff series and won. portland is much worse when he is in the game this season. he's the same defensive poison he has been his whole career, one playoff game against a below league average offense (us) notwithstanding.

Maybe that's true in general, but OKC has been on a worrying trend this season where random opposing players hang career nights up us.

[SecondTake]

is this kanter narrative for real? you guys remember the previous season when kanter played all those minutes against san antonio and we beat a 10+ srs team? kanter sucks, but it's not like we haven't played him in a playoff series and won. portland is much worse when he is in the game this season. he's the same defensive poison he has been his whole career, one playoff game against a below league average offense (us) notwithstanding.

Yes. Didn't you notice ESPN pushing it all game long? They didn't show the possessions we destroyed him and Lillard in the Pick and Roll, but a couple of times where did what he has always done, ie grabbing stuff close to the basket and converting that at a high rate.

It's all about match up when it comes to Kanter. But the ESPN/casual narrative is beyond stupid. Kanter was getting killed early in the game. Portland made a great defensive adjustment though (was very difficult to score from the inside). Obviously it helped them to focus on interior defense when the opponent can't make a 3. If we were shooting the 3 even at 30% Kanter would have been exposed.

The only really positive impact Kanter provides for Portland is his offensive rebound skill / 2nd chance points for Portland

If we're shooting from 3 we win that game, but I don't see the connection to Kanter. Kanter isn't the guy guarding the 3 point line, and he did a good job making it hard on Adams, which is about what he needed to do.

[SecondTake]

I really don't think Kanter scoring 20 points should be a big concern. When it comes to defense we need some good team defense (we did it during 3 quarters).
The key factor for me is defending well on CJ (because Lillard will make some crazy shots anyway and Westbrook is able to defend relatively well on him). When it comes to Cj, he was always open or killing Schroeder/Ferguson in 1vs1 (and he had a bad shooting night, could be way worse when he's hot)

Schroder was doing a decent job defensively. He's not PG, but I think he held his own alright on his assignments. If he had paired it with just league average offense he would be good to go.

[Pillendreher]

I am. I'm just not am impressionable idiot.

This thread got chippier than I'd like. Pille, you know better. Don't go after people.

Also will you guys lay off the visitors?

the discord chat has made him feral.

I'm as civil as ever. You should join me for tea; I could show you.

[slick_watts]

is this kanter narrative for real? you guys remember the previous season when kanter played all those minutes against san antonio and we beat a 10+ srs team? kanter sucks, but it's not like we haven't played him in a playoff series and won. portland is much worse when he is in the game this season. he's the same defensive poison he has been his whole career, one playoff game against a below league average offense (us) notwithstanding.

Maybe that's true in general, but OKC has been on a worrying trend this season where random opposing players hang career nights up us.

name the random players who had career nights on us this season.

[SecondTake]

is this kanter narrative for real? you guys remember the previous season when kanter played all those minutes against san antonio and we beat a 10+ srs team? kanter sucks, but it's not like we haven't played him in a playoff series and won. portland is much worse when he is in the game this season. he's the same defensive poison he has been his whole career, one playoff game against a below league average offense (us) notwithstanding.

Maybe that's true in general, but OKC has been on a worrying trend this season where random opposing players hang career nights up us.

name the random players who had career nights on us this season.

Blake, Wiggins like every time, Kanter, Siakam, Dragic/Wade, Buddy Hield all had some of their best games of the season playing against us.

[slick_watts]

Maybe that's true in general, but OKC has been on a worrying trend this season where random opposing players hang career nights up us.

name the random players who had career nights on us this season.

Blake, Wiggins like every time, Kanter, Siakam, Dragic/Wade, Buddy Hield all had some of their best games of the season playing against us.

that's seven players. out of 400+ in the nba who are not thunder players. this doesn't seem so concerning to me, especially if you characterize them as 'random'. do you believe seven players having 'some of their best games of the season' playing against us is a reason to worry? what do other teams average in this regard? is seven a lot or a little?

this is the problem with making statements of fact based on anecdotal evidence.

[SecondTake]

name the random players who had career nights on us this season.

Blake, Wiggins like every time, Kanter, Siakam, Dragic/Wade, Buddy Hield all had some of their best games of the season playing against us.

that's seven players. out of 400+ in the nba who are not thunder players. this doesn't seem so concerning to me, especially if you characterize them as 'random'. do you believe seven players having 'some of their best games of the season' playing against us is a reason to worry? what do other teams average in this regard? is seven a lot or a little?

this is the problem with making statements of fact based on anecdotal evidence.

It would be more accurate to count it as a percentage of games we've played. Out of 82 games, in how many games did an opposing player have a season best-or-close year? I named 7, but Wiggins did it multiple times and I'm pretty sure I missed a few more. Probably about~20% of our games have seen guys put up huge numbers against us, well above their season average. Kanter playing like prime Shaq certainly didn't help us. His scoring wasn't a big deal, but if you take away 2 or 3 of his Orb (which is Adams job) and we win that game.

[hardenASG13]

Feeling pretty good about game 1. Portland, especially dame, hit some crazy 3s, while okc couldn't buy one, and they barely lost a game 1 on the road. Westbrook can get layups on them (unlike Utah last year). Just gotta get a little more out of the ferguson/Schroeder combo, and have George hit a few open looks/step backs. Portland has less rim protection than okc. Grant was extremely impressive with his versatility on defense.

[Pillendreher]

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I hope regression to the mean will be kind to us from here on out.

[Pillendreher]

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[Jstock12]

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I hope regression to the mean will be kind to us from here on out.

What would the 'mean' look like? Hitting 3 of 11?

[ThunderBolt]

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That's believable.

[Dadouv47]

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That's believable.

His shoulder healed after one game and one practice (while it couldn't improve when it wasn't that serious). Maybe Roberson will play tomorrow as well.

[JustOneFix]

He said it after the game his shooting night was cause by a days of rest, that he was just rusty, not injured. I took it as a positive sign. Not sure how true is that though...

[Dadouv47]

Well at best he will play like he used to after the ASG. If the rest of the team plays well (big if), it could be enough to win.

[SecondTake]

Did you see that Ice pack on his shoulder? We know where all the Antarctic ice is going and it's not global warming. It's all on his shoulders. Hes definitely still injured.

He said it after the game his shooting night was cause by a days of rest, that he was just rusty, not injured. I took it as a positive sign. Not sure how true is that though...

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

[Pillendreher]

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That's believable.

George is a drama queen. I fully expect him to wear that tape like war paint on his face within the next 7 days.