Grade Game 1 an F for effort
Donovan, players bemoan lack of urgency in opener, promise to make amends with a second chance today
Oklahoma City guard Chris Paul was thankful he wasn’t back at Wake Forest this week, because the NBA playoffs afford something the NCAA Tournament does not: mercy.
“Luckily, it’s not March Madness,” said Paul, easily the Thunder’s oldest player at 35. “We lost Game 1. Now we’ve got to get ready for Game 2.”
Oklahoma City not only lost the opener; compared to the young Thunder, the Rockets looked like the squad with more lively legged players fresher out of college.
The Rockets, who average 30.1 years of age, outhustled the Thunder, who average 25.5 years of age, from start to finish in their 123-108 victory Tuesday, leaving Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan scratching his silver hair. Simply and surprisingly, the postseason-savvy Rockets looked much hungrier to stick around in the NBA bubble near Orlando, Fla.
After patiently fielding questions about mixing and matching his lineup and perhaps trying to draw more fouls on the aggressive Rockets, Donovan on Wednesday cut to the heart of the matter regarding what he believes is the issue one game in: audacity — and his team’s early lack of it.
“There are a lot of things to take from the game … and all that (other) stuff to me really doesn’t make a difference,” Donovan said in preparation for Thursday afternoon’s Game 2. “The reality is we didn’t play well enough. We didn’t get back in transition, we gave up 20 corner 3-point shots, we allowed the ball to go by us off the dribble, and we got stagnant in our half-court (offense).
“We’ve just got to play a lot better to our identity than we did, … That’s the challenge.”
The fourth-seeded Rockets and fifthseeded Thunder each entered the postseason with a 44-28 record but on Tuesday didn’t appear anywhere near the same level.
“There was nothing good about our defense,” said Thunder guard Dennis Schroder, whose team won two of three from the Rockets in the regular season before Houston traded center Clint Capela and opted for a smaller, swifter lineup. “That was not how we played during the whole season, and it’s going to be better (on Thursday).”
Like Paul, Schroder pointed out the Thunder are fortunate there’s more to the NBA playoffs than a one-and-done setup.
“It’s whoever wins four games first,” Schroder said of the best-of-seven format. “We’re going to be prepared. (Tuesday’s loss) didn’t have anything to do with any game-planning. It was just our effort, what we didn’t do to 100 percent. That’s the key why we lost the game, (and) offensively we just have to flow and can’t be stagnant.”
The Thunder have not won at least three games in a playoffs series since Donovan’s first season in 2015-16. Last year, as the Western Conference’s sixth seed, they lost their first two games of the opening round against the Portland Trail Blazers before falling 4-1.
Three years ago, the Thunder, then led by current Rocket Russell Westbrook, lost to the Rockets 4-1 in the opening round. Westbrook missed Tuesday’s opener with a strained quadriceps muscle and likely is out for Game 2.
His absence didn’t seem to matter, and the mystified Thunder vow they need to get in gear if they’re to have any hope of advancing past the revved-up Rockets.
“We’ve got to play with more thrust. We’ve got to be more aggressive on both ends of the court and see what that does for us,” Paul said. “We’ve got to play with a better pace, get the ball up the court quicker, and that’s on me.”
Paul, Schroder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the most potent guard trios in the league, said they must be the catalysts for the Thunder to make the series competitive.
“We need more aggressiveness and assertiveness, just playing faster and getting out in transition more, in not letting them set up their defense,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Donovan added that there’s no need to overanalyze one 15-point loss, saying the Thunder just need to get back to basics in the postseason.
“The answer going forward,” Donovan said, “is we’re all going to have to play better on both ends of the floor than we did the other night.”