Carmelo Anthony getting work with bench players
Billy Donovan has tried Carmelo Anthony in lineups with the Thunder’s bench. He’s put Paul George on the court with four reserves.
And at times, the Oklahoma City coach has gone all in off the bench, with five backups while his starters rest.
Though he’s tinkered with different combinations, Donovan’s use of Anthony with the bench unit in the first quarters in two games before Wednesday’s 104-88 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves wasn’t expressly by design.
In fact, Donovan said Wednesday at the Target Center, Anthony’s minutes with the bench on Tuesday against Portland came by accident.
“I tried to get him out, but obviously when the play keeps going on, it’s hard, when there’s no stoppage of play,” Donovan said before Wednesday’s game. “I had burned a timeout a little bit earlier. He’s generally playing most of that first quarter, but it just so happened I think he and Russell (Westbrook) probably had extended minutes just because of the time situation.”
Donovan didn’t go with Anthony and the bench in the first half on Wednesday, a lineup he’d used extensively early in the season but has gone away from.
Instead he went a stretch with four reserves — Raymond Felton, Josh
Huestis, Jerami Grant and Patrick Patterson — with starter Terrance Ferguson.
Ferguson has been a bench player most of this season but on Wednesday started his fifth straight game in place of injured starter Andre Roberson.
The Thunder closed the third quarter with Anthony, George and Steven Adams on the floor.
Roberson remains out
Roberson was on the court with his teammates before Wednesday’s game. He shot a 3-pointer from the left corner, then jogged around the 3-point arc to the right corner and took another.
He repeated the process several times, never quite running but maintaining a steady pace.
It was the latest on-court work for Roberson, who on Wednesday missed his sixth straight game with patellar tendinitis in his left knee. He also did some light work at the Thunder’s practice on Monday and at Tuesday’s morning shootaround ahead of a night game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
But there was no update Wednesday on when Roberson — one of the NBA’s top perimeter defenders — might return to the court. The Thunder won’t practice on Thursday, coming off back-to-back games. It is scheduled to practice on Friday before it travels to
Charlotte for Saturday’s game against the Hornets.
Roberson will be evaluated on Friday.
In Roberson’s absence, rookie Ferguson started his fifth straight game.
“Ferguson is a young guy, but he’s really very gifted,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “Of course, he doesn’t have the experience that Roberson has. Roberson is an elite defender. But there’s a defensive component to Ferguson. And so, they have a lot of long, athletic guys that are interchangeable. So, their defense is top of the line.”
Home on the road
Ferguson made 1 of 6 3-pointers on Wednesday. That brought him to 12 of 40 from 3-point range on the road this season.
Six of those 3s came in a 24-point performance last week against the Lakers in Los Angeles.
Even with that outlier, Ferguson’s road 3-point shooting is notable.
After Wednesday’s game, he was shooting 30 percent from 3-point range on the road.
At home this season, Ferguson has missed all five of his 3-point attempts.