After back-to-back very good games, the Oklahoma City Thunder reverted to a stagnant offense in the 103-82 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had posted at least 27 points in three straight games, scored just 15 on 6-for-14 shooting. Darius Bazley had five points and missed all five 3-pointers he attempted. Kenrich Williams was 0-for-7 off the bench and Mike Muscala made one shot in 14 minutes.
Oklahoma City shot 35.8% from the field and 20.5% from deep.
But here’s the thing — it wasn’t because the Thunder were forced into poor shots. Many of the shots were good. They weren’t falling. And that is something head coach Mark Daigneault must teachhis players.
“We normally shoot a higher percentage than that with the quality of shots we got,” Daigneualt said. “I think the lesson there is when it’s not falling, we gotta find, like, grimier ways to try to generate points. We gotta hit paint the paint more, we gotta get to the line more. Sometimes you just have to kind of grind out offense.”
Basically, adjust and deviate from the game plan when the game plan is not working. If Bazley, for instance, is 0-for-4 on 3s, gets a defensive rebound and brings the ball up court himself, he should not take a 3-point shot eight seconds into the shot clock, even if he is open. He must have the wherewithal to look at the court and find a driving lane or a teammate who will be open.
Ty Jerome played 19 minutes, a season-high spurned by A) the blowout and B) Tre Mann’s assignment to the G league. Jerome went 3-for-7 and made two 3s.
“W missed a lot of good looks that we normally make,” Jerome said. “I don’t think we did other stuff well enough, like offensive rebound, drive the ball well, stuff like that.”
One way the Warriors threw the Thunder off their rhythm was with a zone defense. Daigneault said Oklahoma City expected this but was unable to play it properly.
“We let the zone bother us a little bit. They did a good job,” Jerome said. “They bothered us for sure with that zone in the second quarter.”
“We could have done a better job attacking the paint while they were scrambling,” said wing Lu Dort, who had 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting in 30 minutes.
The Thunder scored 20 points in the first quarter, but unlike the Lakers game in which OKC bounced back from a 19-point first quarter, they could not find their footing at any further juncture. The Thunder scored 24 in the second, an unsightly 14 in the third, and then 24 points in the fourth quarter with the benches on the court.
“We didn’t have it tonight offensively from a rhythm standpoint, and then didn’t have the solutions to generate that rhythm,” Daigneault said.
That’s the key word: solutions. Oklahoma City struggles to get its offense going even in normal circumstances, and finding solutions for stagnation is something the team is often missing.
The Thunder had just three offensive rebounds. There isn’t consistency at the center spot. On a positive note, though, they did attempt 21 free throws to Golden State’s eight.
Those solutions — Plan B, Plan C, Plan D when the first plan isn’t working — are essential to making offense churn.