In Game 7, the Oklahoma City Thunder will rely on a combination of experience and youth.
Point guard Chris Paul, power forward Danilo Gallinari and center Steven Adams have game Game 7 experience. Guard Dennis Schroder has never played in this game, but he was on the 2014 Atlanta Hawks team that took the Indiana Pacers to seven games in his rookie year.
Among lessons being preached is that, while the importance of a Game 7 is heightened from those of earlier series, players cannot forget what worked for them to get to this point.
“We need to take all the positive stuff that we did in the last game — especially the approach and the attention to details that we had — for 48 minutes,” Gallinari said.
Meanwhile, there are three key players who have minimal NBA experience, let alone playoff years.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made the playoffs in his rookie year and played about 29 minutes in the six-game series. This series, he’s averaging 39.7 minutes per game.
Lu Dort and Darius Bazley are rookies who have seen extensive time.
Head coach Billy Donovan isn’t hesitating to play them. He mentioned all three in the press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“The majority of our team is very young. I think that this has been a great experience for Shai. Because I think last year in the playoffs, he was kind of playing a rookie role so to speak, where his minutes were limited. Now, he’s playing a primary role.”
“Darius last year wasn’t even playing organized basketball.”
“Lu Dort was a two-way player, undrafted, that kind of, through some injuries was afforded the opportunity and he took full advantage of it.”
Those seven players and Nerlens Noel, who is a six-year pro but in just his second playoff series, are expected to make up the rotation in the final game of the season against the Houston Rockets.
“I always say with experience, you have to start somewhere. I don’t think you can just take a player and say, ‘OK, well this guy’s young, we can’t play him,'” Donovan said.
“He’s gotta learn at some point and we’re going to have some kind of youthfulness out there on the floor.”
Donovan said that young players need to make sure they’re disciplined in areas of the game plan they can control.
“In terms of shots selections, reads and those kind of things. Can you be disciplined in terms of doing your job on the things you can control?” Donovan said.
“The one thing you can’t control is the ball going in out out of the basket … if you can really be disciplined in the areas that you can control as a young player, those experiences are only going to make you better.”
And it’s not like these players have no big game experience.
They’re one night removed from almost being eliminated.
“I think our Game 7 was yesterday, too,” Donovan said. “We kind of experienced that feeling of knowing that if the game doesn’t go our way last night, our season’s over, and the same thing is taking place here tomorrow.”
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