Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan gave a little hint to his rotation plans going forward in the series against the Houston Rockets.
After the 123-108 loss in Game One of the series, the Thunder likely can’t play 11-men deep again.
Part of that this game was because Nerlens Noel got into early foul trouble. Part was because Donovan wanted to see Andre Roberson early.
From the way Donovan talked, it sounds like four bench guys will be favored: Dennis Schroder, Hamidou Diallo, Darius Bazley and Nerlens Noel.
Those four, along with the starting lineup that includes Terrance Ferguson in place of Lu Dort, would give Oklahoma City a nine-man rotation.
Where does that leave the other players who have gotten time during the season and bubble? Roberson, Mike Muscala, and Abdel Nader, who was available after a neck and elbow sensation held him out of the final bubble game, did not play Tuesday.
“We played Dennis off the bench, and we played Hami off the bench, we played Bazley off the bench and we played Nerlens off the bench,” Donovan said.
“The other two guys, Mike was in there because there was some foul issues with Nerlens, and other one was, I wanted to take a look at Andre, to see what it would be like guarding James Harden. He certainly has a history of playing against him and knows him very well. I think it was important sooner than later to find out what that would look like.”
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While Donovan said Roberson had “a good defensive stance,” he could not have been pleased about the foul Roberson committed on Harden on a 3-point shot. The star guard also drove by Roberson with apparent ease at one point. Roberson was a minus-6 in three minutes of play.
Muscala hit the only shot he took, a 3-pointer, but only had two rebounds in 13 minutes and might not move well enough defensively to defend the 5-out Rockets.
“One guy I didn’t play that I’ll continue to look at is Abdel Nader,” Donovan said.
Nader had two minutes of garbage time.
Going off what Donovan said, it sounds like the nine-man rotation moving forward will be point guards Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Schroder; wings Ferguson, Diallo and Bazley; power forward Danilo Gallinari, who, like Bazley, can get time as center; and Steven Adams and Noel.
Lu Dort has no timetable on his return, but he has not been ruled out of Game Two as Donovan says the guard continues to progress.
Donovan said he’ll watch film on Roberson; if Donovan only needed to see three minutes of action before removing him from Game One, though, there may be more focus on the other nine players moving forward.
It sounds like Muscala will only get time when foul trouble dictates.
Houston cut its bench down to just three guys to play an eight-man rotation. It worked masterfully, as Jeff Green had 22 points and was plus-28, Ben McLemore had 14 points and was plus-27 and Austin Rivers had four points but was plus-11.
The Oklahoma City bench will have to be that productive to counter the Rockets moving forward.
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