All around the league a frantic whisper of, “He’s back!” was uttered last night. Sometimes gleeful, sometimes terrified. The MVP, Mr. Triple Double, is back. This time he comes with back up. A team built with intentions of winning. No matter how you look at it last year was clearly a “process” year for the Thunder. A team turned upside down by trade and Free Agency there was only one goal for last season.
Let Russell Westbrook unleash a fury across the league. Exploit his talents, showcase his wondrous talents. Wins came as a result of relentless will, but the only thing Sam Presti wanted from the Thunder last year was a Russell Westbrook MVP. I’ve heard from people within the organization that Presti was actually making the rounds to team personnel asking for ideas on how to better showcase Russell. The team centered a season on Russ much like Kobe’s farewell tour. Unlike, the ill-fated Laker’s season that stunted the growth of rookies and potentially the team as a whole. The Russell Westbrook revenge tour in contrast already seems like it was a resounding success. Russ has extended, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony are wearing Thunder Blue and there is an excitement permeating the city about this season. 21-10-16… He’s back!
Let’s look at plays now. I’m going to start off with 2:30 left in the second quarter. A Porzingis offensive rebound tip in had tied the game up and all across Loud City folks shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Growing pains were expected, but that should have come against Utah this coming Saturday, not against the Knicks. In the next 2 and a half minutes the Thunder would go on a 11-0 run and never look back.
Everyone gets tired of hearing talk about “chemistry”. Fans, media and players, just ask Russ, but this play is the epitome of chemistry. Adams is so in tune with Russell that he very nearly ruins the play entirely. He steps up to back screen Courtney Lee for Russ. He immediately starts to slip the screen when Lee overreacts to it, but Russ reads the same thing and rejected the screen for a paint drive. In the course of one step Adams recognizes, holds up for half a second then follows Russ to the rim like those jerks that get behind an ambulance on the highway. A clear lane with no impedance to the rim. The only thing that got close to ruining the beautiful put-back dunk was Russ’ second jump ability going for the rebound of his miss. Adams knows exactly what Russ is going to do on the court. Chemistry and things.
This play has a few interesting things. First, Abrines thinks he’s going to box out Kanter on a Porzingis 3, but gets completely dominated and thrown out of position. Alex had a few plays during this game where he did a much better job at boxing out but Kanter schooled him here.
Second, Russ is a freak and goes up over Kanter as though he wasn’t a PG rebounding over a C. Second, notice after the release by Porzingis Paul George has already started leaking out down court. A cleaner rebound by Russ would have led to an uncontested dunk no doubt. Third, look how quickly Adams gets the rebound back to Russ to start the break. Chemistry and things. Finally, notice the 3 players for the Thunder that get across half court. Russ, PG and Carmelo. Firepower. This is just an incredible change compared to last year. I can’t wait to watch more.
Now let’s take a look at some defense. Adam’s was a terror all night defensively, disrupting plays, blocking shots and calling out rotations left and right. Here he gets some help from Anthony and George, and swats the hell out of Kyle O’Quinn. We start with Porzingis sweeping to his right from the wing across the lane. He attempts to create some space with a high elbow swing, but doesn’t deter Adams. He ends up taking a wildly off balanced floating hook that very nearly falls. Anthony and George scrap around the loose ball, but O’Quinn comes up with it. Carmelo saves the points by swiping at the ball forcing O’Quinn to re-gather and allowing Adams to recover for the swat. Porzingis likely should have finished the resulting rebound and dunk, but there was a ton of congestion down there.
When Russ finally tracks down the ball, the other four Thunder plays immediately sprint the floor. They fill all the lanes immediately and have a 5 on 3. The finger roll George takes are 2 of the easiest points you’ll find in the NBA this season.
Before we talk about the play just watch and appreciate that Paul George is intentionally matching up on Kistraps Porzingis. The options this creates for the defense this year are boundless. His ability to reach around and tip the pass then sprint the floor to beat the buzzer. It’s breathtaking athleticism, basketball IQ, and is going to rock the house at Chesapeake Arena all year.
That concluded the 11-0 run to end the half. These are the types of runs that you can expect all season. There is just so much athleticism and basketball ability that the Thunder can trot out on the court at any given time. Here are a few more plays that stood out from early in the 3rd.
If you’ve ever read one of my play breakdowns you know I can’t help but have at least one Andre highlight. Here’s a classic. Takes the post up from 7’3” Porzingis, out jumps him for the entry pass and then immediately looks for Russ on the break. You can see the entire time he’s trying to recover the loose ball that he’s tracking Russ. The moment he gets a semblance of control of the ball he basically shoves the ball forward to get it to Russ.
Last year the Thunder lived and died by its ability to get Russ out on the break for easy points. Some of that chemistry we talked about with Adams is clearly seen here with Andre as well. Russ abandoned ship trusting that Andre would get the steal and get him the ball, Andre knew as long as he could get the ball recovered Russ would be out front waiting on a pass.
There were more than a few plays last night where the Thunder D showed flashed of being an overwhelming force, and this one will probably be overlooked due to the spectacular block by George, but let’s take a closer look at everything that lead to the eventual block.
Andre is on the ball at the left wing. Porzingis is battling for position at the left eblow with Carmelo. Adam steps forward from Kanter to sandwich Porzingis until Melo is able to get in position, then immediately retreats back to his man Kanter. It’s clear that Lee is trying to get the ball to Kristaps so Andre sags back and bites hard on any attempt at passing. Meanwhile, Melo is bullying Kristaps and has forced him from the elbow all the way out to the 3 line. Thunder fans learned from Kendrick Perkins all those years ago that the key to post defense is never letting your man catch the ball where they want it. Terrific work by Melo here. When Lee abandons the attempt to feed Porzingis several things happen. First Hardaway sprints from the right wing to the top of the 3 line. Paul George isn’t caught napping and moves with him. Second, Porzingis cuts to the middle of the lane. Melo hangs with him the whole way on his back and Andre slides over in front deterring any second attempts at an entry pass. Hardaway decides the only option is a catch and shoot that George just smothers.
This was fantastic team defense. Melo might not care a ton about defense, but it seems to me just about every player in the league takes it personally when someone tries to post them up. If we keep Melo defending bigs hopefully this kind of fight keeps it up throughout the season. Also, it’s just so refreshing to see a second wing defending option beside Roberson. Andre has good on ball skills but he really shines off the ball blowing up plays before they can even begin. Paul George being reliable on ball on the wing will allow Andre to blow plays up left and right this season.
Now comes the stretch where Russ was hunting alley oops. They all came organically off different action.
The first comes directly from the threat of having an actual 3 point shooter. As Russ brings the ball up Adams runs towards PG in the right corner to “set a screen”. PG cuts up towards the wing.
This screen grab is blurry but that actually helps define the motion that makes this play work. You can see George running towards the ball, Adams slipping the screen and streaking to the rim, but you can see the other part that makes this a clearly pre-set play. Andre begins flashing up towards the ball at the same time as George. This cut diverts his man’s attention just enough to keep him from sliding to help on the lob. The result is gorgeous.
On the VERY next play we see the Thunder exploit the Knicks defense based on the results of the previous play. Russ brings the ball up with PG at the right wing, Robes in the right corner and Adams coming out to run a PnR. Adams abandons the screen opting for a hard roll. This causes the Knicks d to react hard thanks to the previous play.
I’ve highlighted two important things. First, Andre’s man is paying complete attention to Adams’ role. This is nothing new it happened all last season. Andre’s man will always abandon him in the corner in favor of help defense. The second highlight is the difference between this season and last. Paul George in the right wing forces his man to hang way out. Last year that man would be all the way down at the elbow. This would sagging would limit the threat of Adams hard role and help out Andre’s man significantly cutting down on the availability of a lob to Andre backdoor.
Also, just notice how quickly Russ recognizes that the lob to Andre is going to be the right call here. I honestly think that he’s already recognized the play in the screen grab above and Andre hasn’t even started his cut yet. People sometimes discredit Russ for his ability to pass people open. He does it pretty well here, I’d say.
There is a next to 0 percent chance that Russ wasn’t hunting another oop here to really just break the Knicks will. 3 alley oops in 3 plays. Yikes.
I had one last play I wanted to highlight but couldn’t get the video embed link. If you really want to watch it you can here. It was an example of us using Andre the way we do in the playoffs but seemingly never during the regular season. It’s a positive sign and something I’m going to watch for moving forward. That’s all for today. Be excited, because this is extremely exciting. He’s back! With help! **Special thanks to 3ball.io for all their work in getting these plays available and searchable. Also, their embed links save me tons of time. Their new tools this season are top notch!
Comments
|
AuthorArchives
November 2017
Categories
All
|