You don’t substitute a participant like Chet Holmgren, actually. The sport-breaking large man has confirmed such an ideal match for the Thunder and checks so many packing containers in a single tidy 7-foot-1 package deal — as a floor-spacing 3-point shooter, as an elite rim protector, as a complementary face-up and off-the-bounce scoring menace, because the missing-piece cog who makes Mark Daigneault’s five-out offensive scheme actually sing, and so on. — that there aren’t very many like-for-like replacements obtainable when he isn’t. (It’s not like you possibly can simply signal Kristaps Porziņģis, Myles Turner or off the scrap heap, ?)
So after Holmgren hit the deck laborious after contesting an Andrew Wiggins drive on Sunday night time, needing to be helped off the court docket with what was later identified as a , all people knew {that a} Thunder crew that had risen to the highest of the West behind a backstopped by would wish to search out one other solution to win. And with Oklahoma Metropolis’s two different bona fide bigs — offseason signing Isaiah Hartenstein and third-year professional Jaylin Williams — additionally on the shelf for a minimum of the subsequent few weeks, simply “slot in another tall guy” isn’t an possibility.
Slotting in one other small(er) man, although, is.
With out the league’s lurking to wash up messes on the basket, Daigneault leaned into Oklahoma Metropolis’s estimable wing depth in opposition to the Clippers on Monday. The Thunder have spent loads of time the previous few seasons taking part in small-and-or-thin up entrance — miss u, Poku — so downshifting, as and each famous Monday, isn’t as novel or surprising because it is likely to be for different groups. So Oklahoma Metropolis began small and stayed small, fielding lineups nearly completely devoid of gamers taller than 6-foot-6. (We see you, Ousmane Dieng.) The guess: an armada of knife-handed maniacs on the perimeter would be capable of disrupt L.A.’s offensive circulation sufficient with energetic arms, early rotations and opportunistic traps to win the possession battle.
The strategy paid dividends from the opening tip … which was jumped by Jalen Williams, all 6-foot-5 of him, who continued his trek up the positional mountain: level guard at Santa Clara, taking pictures guard as a rookie, energy ahead in his , backup middle behind Holmgren to start out the season, and now, beginning 5. (“That’s why I gained weight,” he .)
Head coach Tyronn Lue understandably sought to press the Clippers’ dimension benefit off the rip, calling a straight post-up for 7-foot, 240-pound middle Ivica Zubac. And Williams, very clearly anticipating this, mixed anticipation with a 7-foot-2 wingspan to get a soar on the play, slice a hand in entrance of Zubac, knock away the entry go and create a turnover that bought Oklahoma Metropolis off and working.
This was what you would possibly name “setting a tone.”
Oklahoma Metropolis had already been earlier than Holmgren’s damage. Actually, previous to Sunday’s loss to the Warriors, the Thunder had created cough-ups on outdoors of rubbish time, in response to Cleansing the Glass. Not solely is {that a} dramatic enhance over the ; it could be the best opponent turnover charge within the 22 campaigns for which Cleansing the Glass has information. (No crew has even topped 18% for a full season , when Jason Kidd known as an to leverage the size of his younger Bucks, headlined by a precocious Giannis Antetokounmpo.)
The Thunder cranked up that disruption one other notch on Monday. With Williams, the 6-foot-5 Alex Caruso and Dillon Jones, the just-returned 6-foot-6 Kenrich Williams and comparative large Dieng (who goes 6-foot-10, however at a reedy 216 kilos) taking turns manning the center — and with off-ball menaces like Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins ready to pounce at each alternative — Oklahoma Metropolis racked up and , forcing turnovers on an eye-popping in a .
The pressure-bursts-pipes strategy is actually an extension of ordinary working process for Oklahoma Metropolis, which leads the NBA in , and per recreation. (The final crew to try this for a full season? The 2016-17 Warriors, which added Kevin Durant to the core of a 73-win behemoth and promptly grew to become one of many best groups of all time.) It’s additionally a pure outgrowth of constant to lean into the bedlam created by Caruso, who’s 3.2 steals, 1.2 blocks and seven.4 per 36 minutes of flooring time, all of which is spent careening across the court docket like a caffeinated cartoon shot out of a cannon:
Maintain your eyes educated solely on Caruso throughout this stretch. Dude all the time performs like he drank 14 cups of espresso proper earlier than hopping on the court docket.
(Simply as an apart: Caruso’s are hilarious — Zubac, the 6-foot-10 Michael Porter Jr., Deandre Ayton, Nikola Jokić, Goga Bitadze, Jonathan Kuminga, Alperen Şengün, Draymond Inexperienced … oh, and in addition Jamal Murray, Trae Younger and Russell Westbrook. Whoever you need to annoy, frustrate and disrupt? Simply ship the bald man at them.)
The selection to ratchet up the stress much more with out Holmgren produced much more turnovers. Interrupting these Clipper possessions and turning them into early offense — OKC scored and completed with a — helped the Thunder rip off an early 11-1 run to take management and construct a lead that ballooned to twenty factors halfway by means of the third.
“Simply type of full throttle in it — if it does not work, then clearly, we are able to regulate,” Jalen Williams, who completed with 28 factors, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals in 35 minutes of labor, spent largely wrestling with the considerably bigger Zubac. (Daigneault praised his new beginning middle after the sport: “He has a chance to be a great player. What makes him great is how well-rounded his game is. … There’s really nothing on the basketball court he can’t do.”)
“That’s what we’re doing tonight,” Williams added. “Seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t work and then going from there.”
What worked: sending double- and sometimes triple-teams on post-ups from different angles; dialing up hard traps in the pick-and-roll to get the ball out of James Harden’s hands; having both low men ready to swarm as the ball entered the paint to try to get a strip, a block or a tie-up, preventing a shot from getting up in the first place.
When that doesn’t work, though, the lack of size becomes very, very clear:
After a quiet first half in which Zubac had more turnovers (four) than buckets (two), the Clippers did a better job of getting him touches in areas where he could play keep-away from OKC’s smaller defenders, allowing him to catch and finish without bringing the ball down near swiping hands. And as committed as the Thunder’s wings were to gang-rebounding, getting bodies on Zubac early to box him out and try to tap missed shots clear to teammates, the Clippers did grab 15 offensive rebounds leading to 21 points — a whopping that, unsurprisingly, stands as the Oklahoma City has allowed this season.
Those paint points and extra possessions, combined with a hellacious second-half heater from scorching Clipper wing Norman Powell, cut OKC’s lead all the way down to one possession multiple times in the fourth quarter — underscoring how difficult and demanding it really is to spend 100-plus possessions over 48 minutes fighting up a weight class.
The Thunder were able to survive, though, thanks largely to the other key linchpin of the “go small, win big” plan: When Oklahoma Metropolis retains the ground unfold and opens issues up, it provides Gilgeous-Alexander all of the room he must drop a constructing in your head.
Sunday’s loss and Monday’s win have been Oklahoma Metropolis’s , even with all of the compelled turnovers. It doesn’t appear sustainable to want to to eke out a squeaker, identical to it doesn’t appear cheap to anticipate 45 factors on 21 photographs, 4 3-pointers, 15 free throws and 9 assists with only one turnover from SGA.
Then again, although, the two-time All-NBA First Group choice and reigning MVP runner-up positive does appear to anticipate it from himself …
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s profession excessive 45 factors in opposition to the Clippers
“It didn’t feel special… it just felt like another basketball game” – SGA
… so possibly we shouldn’t short-change him. Or the remainder of these , hell-bent on , and with it the sport, by any means obligatory.
“I think what they lean back on is that they’re highly competitive,” Daigneault after the sport. “They want to win. And they’re highly connected. So they’re gonna do whatever it takes to win, and they’re gonna do it together.”
Within the post-game interview, NBA TV’s Dennis Scott questioned the shelf-life of this small-ball look — one that may not essentially must final by means of Holmgren’s , however that might want to operate as Oklahoma Metropolis’s fastball and changeup till Hartenstein, a minimum of, is cleared to make his debut. Realistically, Scott requested, how lengthy are you able to play this manner?
Gilgeous-Alexander logged the Thunder’s closing deflection of the night time, swatting the query away with the one reply there may be: “However long we need to.”
