After jumping out to a 22-point lead in the first quarter on Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked like they would be taking a commanding 3-1 lead over the Los Angeles Clippers back home for Game 5.
However, thanks to a brilliant-fourth quarter performance from unlikely hero Darren Collison and a smart mid-game adjustment from Doc Rivers, the Clippers managed to even up the series and essentially save their season.
Rivers’ adjustment was to have Chris Paul guard Kevin Durant, creating cross matchups all over the floor. Paul didn’t really stop Durant, who was 4-of-5 in the fourth quarter, but his ability to crowd the MVP’s airspace on the catch and make entry passes into him more difficult, caused panic among the Thunder, leading to turnovers and, ultimately, a Clippers win.
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L.A. appeared to be baiting the Thunder into attempting to exploit obvious mismatches, and OKC seemed happy to play right into the trap. The Thunder tried much too hard on multiple occasions to get Durant the ball or clear out for Russell Westbrook against Darren Collison. This resulted in the ball sticking at the top of the key, forcing difficult shots late in the clock.
The Paul-on-Durant matchup also doomed OKC on the defensive end. The Thunder struggled to get back to their designated assignments in transition, forcing Durant to guard Paul, which resulted in straight-line drives to the basket, and allowing horrible switches where Durant had to guard Blake Griffin, who absolutely abused him in the low post.
Oklahoma City understandably wants the ball in Durant’s and Westbrook’s hands down the stretch, but this usually leads to bad offence as the ball stops moving. The Thunder have to find a balance between the isolation brilliance of their stars and the whipping ball movement the entire team is capable of.
Here’s more on the Thunder and other NBA playoff observations from the weekend:
Tertiary scoring still an issue for OKC
Perhaps contributing to the isolation-heavy looks the Thunder got was the fact that no one besides Durant and Westbrook had it going.
Durant dropped 40 and Westbrook racked up 27, while OKC’s third-highest scorer was Reggie Jackson with 10 points. No Thunder player besides the two stars shot more than eight times in Game 4 and it spoke to a problem the team has had since they traded away James Harden—a lack of tertiary scoring.
OKC has the star power needed to win a championship, but it still doesn’t have the depth. The team is continually searching for that consistent third option as occasional contributors Jackson and Serge Ibaka don’t bring the offensive consistency a player like Jamaal Crawford does for the Clippers.
Without a real third threat to worry about, L.A. was able to really load up on Durant and Westbrook in the fourth—something they couldn’t do with Ibaka rolling in Game 3.
Both of OKC’s wins in the series have come when they’ve received significant contributions on the offensive end from players other than Durant and Westbrook. Those two are capable of taking the Thunder 90 percent of the way, but that last 10 percent has eluded the team throughout these playoffs.
Long lull finally over?
If Games 3 and 4 are any indication, then it looks as if the Indiana Pacers’ two-and-a-half month nap may finally be coming to an end.
Indiana rattled off a pair of character wins over the weekend, holding the Washington Wizards to 63 points and just 32.9 percent shooting from the floor on Friday and then rallying back from a 19-point deficit to steal Game 4 on Sunday.
The Pacers are now up 3-1 in a series many (myself included) thought the Wizards would be able to take after Indiana’s poor showing against the Atlanta Hawks in Round 1 and through the end of the regular season.
The Pacers have come on as Roy Hibbert has re-discovered his game. Paul George was incredible in Game 4—scoring 39 points and hitting seven three-pointers—but Indiana really does go as their big man goes and the Pacers’ comeback was really sparked by Hibbert’s big nine-point, two-block third quarter.
The Pacers still aren’t anywhere close to looking like the team that was on pace for 67 wins during the regular season, but they do seem to have finally woken up and started to shake the cobwebs loose. If they manage to get that motor revving again, every other team left in the dance better take notice.
Brooklyn mirage
The Brooklyn Nets came away with a big 104-90 win on Saturday, handing the Miami Heat their first loss of the post-season.
Nets fans better soak it in while they can because what they saw was an anomaly that won’t happen again.
The Nets shot 60 percent from distance, connecting on an astounding 15-for-25 from deep. While Brooklyn is capable of beautiful side-to-side ball movement, finishing those looks hasn’t exactly been the team’s M.O. during the playoffs—coming into Saturday’s game, the Nets had only shot 32 percent from behind the arc, hitting just 7.2 deep balls per contest.
On the flip side, the Heat came into Game 3 as the top three-point shooting team in the playoffs (42.2 percent), but only made 8-of-24 shots from downtown. The Nets defence had a little to do with that poor performace, but it was mostly just plain misfires.
Brooklyn was hot and Miami was not. It’s just that simple and things should return to normal tonight in Game 4.
It’s been fun Portland
Despite four Portland starters scoring at least 20 points, the San Antonio Spurs still crushed them to take a 3-0 lead on Saturday.
As has been written all series long, the Blazers have no chance of beating the Spurs. So, with that in mind, it’s time to thank them for giving us the moment of the postseason, demolishing analytics and providing the basketball world a good look at a future NBA power.
The team has a long way to go on defence and desperately needs to upgrade its bench, but the foundation is strong. See you next season Rip City.