Shot selection under the microscope again
It was supposed to be a bounceback game for the Thunder in Dallas, but no game can be considered such in OKC's disjointed start to the season on offense.
It starts with shot selection. Raymond Felton has exceeded expectations thus far this season as the Thunder’s second-unit point guard, but he’s shooting 39.3 percent for his career from 16 feet or longer. He started a runaway second quarter for the Mavs with a long two-point jump shot without a pass. Carmelo Anthony caught and shot a step inside the 3-point line with a hand in his face, without hesitation.
Those misses are seemingly insignificant shots within the context of an entire game, but they add up. When the Thunder's trend of poor shot selection results in a flurry of misses, it torpedoes the OKC offense quickly.
“When you’re not getting to the free-throw line and you’re not taking or making a high number of 3s, sometimes those non-paint twos become a little bit more glaring,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “If you’re in the non-paint-two range and you’re getting fouled, it kind of offsets it a little bit. But because of our lack of free-throw shooting, sometimes it becomes a lot more glaring.”
Hence the problem. The Mavericks were content with letting the Thunder shoot long twos, and the Thunder kept taking them instead of attacking.
While lack of free throws shot draws atten-
tion to the long jump shots missed, Donovan’s acceptance of the frequency of those shots is troubling. “That’s not something you want to take away from those guys,” Donovan said of Russell Westbrook, Anthony and George. “We have guys on our team that, when they get to certain areas and spots on the floor, they’re good from those areas.”
Long bombs look good when they’re dropping, but they weren’t Saturday. For example:
•The Thunder shot 5-of-19 in the second quarter, with Westbrook, Anthony, George and Felton going a combined 2-of-13. None of those 13 shots came in the paint.
•Seven of those 13 were on 2-point shots of 15 feet or more. Five more were on missed 3-pointers.
•Only three of the Thunder’s 19 shots in the second quarter were in the paint. In the first four minutes, Dallas trotted out a 39-year-old Dirk Nowitzki at center who isn’t known for his rim protection. All three of the Thunder’s shots in the paint came after Nowitzki subbed out.
The result was a 13-point quarter that ranks among the worst of the Thunder’s season, and a one-point firstquarter deficit expanding to 15 by halftime.
“They had a game plan to force us to shoot jump shots,” George said. “Any time we attacked the paint, they were sending help, which put us in a position to shoot jump shots. I think that’s what we kind of got wrapped into.”
The challenge for Donovan is to unwrap the Thunder’s propensity to settle for jump shots that don’t come within the flow of the offense. While the Mavericks were sending help on penetration, the Thunder was finding the open man with success the few times it did drive and pass.
The Thunder broke a 12-0 Mavericks run in the second when George drove, recognized an unbalanced defense shading toward him, then fired a cross-court pass to Anthony for what should have been a 3 (his foot was on the line, a consistent offensive snafu Anthony needs to fix). Before that, the Thunder went seven possessions without a successful drive and pass.
George drove again, and found Ferguson for a 3-pointer on the next possession. When the Thunder penetrated and passed in the second quarter, it led to 4-of-5 shooting for 10 points.
The Mavericks had two days of rest to the Thunder’s schedule of three games in four days. Nowitzki thought the Thunder looked tired, which could play into OKC settling for 22 non-paint two-point shots. It doesn’t explain why the Thunder suddenly looked lively in the fourth quarter when Nick Collison played the final nine minutes.
“We usually make those shots and we missed them tonight,” Westbrook said when asked about shot selection.
The Thunder is going to have its mid- to longrange moments with George, Anthony and Westbrook. Those offensive dry spells are often a product of shot selection, and it hampered the Thunder in another ugly loss.