LAUNCH PARTY
Defense saves the game for offense
Paul George, the Thunder’s forgotten man of a September to Remember, held New York skyscraper Kristaps Porzingis with one arm and with the other tipped away Tim Hardaway Jr.’s inbounds pass. With this Thunder squad, a loose ball is a jailbreak.
Andre Roberson grabbed the ball and tossed it intentionally into No man’s land, where he knew George would run it down and hoped George would dunk it home before the halftime buzzer. Which he did.
In the third quarter, Hardaway went up for an orthodox 3-pointer only to realize there was a unorthodox defender on him. George’s long arm blocked the shot into Russell Westbrook’s hands, producing another runout and another George lay-in.
And suddenly you realized, even when this Extreme Makeover: Superstar Edition struggles with its offense, which it will, that defense can be really something.
Defense carried the Thunder to a 105-84 rout of the Knickerbockers on a night when George and Carmelo Anthony tried to be spectacular in their OKC debuts but instead showed that meshing will be a work in progress.
“We turned our defense into offense,” said George, who scored 28 points but made just nine of 23 shots. “That’s what put them away.”
Westbrook’s routine excellence — 21 points, 16 assists, 10 rebounds — eventually got the Thunder offense in gear. When the Thunder quit launching so many danged 3-point shots, its offense got much better. With 7½ minutes left in the second quarter, OKC trailed 34-30 and had taken 21 treys. Over the next 14 minutes, the Thunder took just two more 3-pointers but led 71-52.
Defense held the fort. George has been added to a lineup of defensive demons Steven Adams and Andre Roberson, and the Knicks had no hope.
George and Roberson took turns throwing rose petals.
George: “That’s a luxury to play with someone (Roberson) that wants to defend and wants to do what I want to do.”
Roberson: “Good way to end the half. Man, it’s
a luxury (playing with George). He’s a great defender, which makes my job that much easier.”
Porzingis, a budding superstar, had 31 points but made just 11 of 25 shots. This isn’t the Walt Frazier Knicks, but still, New York committed 26 turnovers, shot just 40.5 percent from the field and fired up six air balls. That’s defense that can take the Thunder a long way.
With George riding shotgun with Adams and Roberson.
“The one thing that’s been impressive to me being around him, he has incredible length and range to make plays that most guys can’t make,” Billy Donovan said. “He’s just so long and so quick. He’s disruptive. He can be a couple of feet off a guy and still he’s hard to shoot over.
“Early in the first half, Carmelo and Paul had good looks that just didn’t go down, but the thing I was encouraged about, both of those guys were really good defensively.”
George and Carmelo combined to take 15 3-pointers in those first 16½ minutes, apparently trying to give the Rockets a run for their 3-point money.
But with Doberman defense, guys can take whatever shots they want and all will be right with the world.
“It’s on us to make those shots,” Carmelo said. “If I can speak for PG, we’ve got to get used to those shots. We’re not used to having open looks like that and being wide open. We’ve got to get comfortable with that.”
This historic night began beautifully enough, with Kyle Dillingham playing a violin rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that would have brought Colin Kaepernick to his feet.
Next, an 18-second ovation for Enes Kanter, despite now sporting enemy colors, for the very best of reasons. He’s overflowing with the milk of human kindness.
Finally, the starting lineup announcements, and yep, sure enough, out trotted Carmelo and George. It wasn’t a dream. And if it is, don’t wake us up.
Then the game started and it was rough. But Roberson was a total pest, and Adams was dominant — he finished with five steals and three blocked shots, while helping out on Porzingis, duty that also fell on Carmelo, George and Jerami Grant.
The Thunder is going to play a bunch of teams better than the Knicks — say, 25 or so — but discombobulating New York was a good start as we saw what a difference-maker George can be on defense.