KNOW WHEN TO HOLD ’EM
Thunder’s defense perks up in win over Minnesota Timberwolves
MINNEAPOLIS — The possession had shades of Andre Roberson.
The Thunder’s defense was already making life miserable on the Timberwolves who were already in a miserable state. Their star, Jimmy Butler, has requested a trade, so the preseason is in the hands of the very reliable Karl-Anthony Towns and the inconsistent Andrew Wiggins.
On said possession of the Thunder’s 113-101 win Friday, Paul George and Patrick Patterson dove into the scouting report to exploit the inconsistency. The Thunder pair quickly jumped out to double Wiggins as he dribbled around a screen.
George two-hand
swatted Wiggins’ jump pass down like a blocker at the net in volleyball, then smothered him into an air ball on the ensuing drive.
“Regardless of who’s out there, who’s out on the floor, what personnel, we’ve got principles that we stick to.” George said.
Roberson, the Thunder’s best defensive player and one of the league’s best when healthy, isn’t going to be available until at least December. It may even be a full year since his Jan. 27 ruptured left patellar tendon until Roberson is back on the court.
Until then, it would benefit the Thunder to perform defensively as it did in the first half against Minnesota on Friday. The Thunder kept the Timberwolves to 37.8 percent (17-of-45) from the field in the first half, and 40.7 percent overall.
It was the type of performance necessary in a world without Roberson, which the Thunder will be living in on the court until at last early December when Roberson is scheduled to be re-evaluated.
George scored a teambest 23 points in his preseason debut before sitting out the fourth quarter. He missed Wednesday’s preseason opener to attend the wake of his girlfriend’s father. Aside from hitting the backboard with a corner 3-point attempt in the first quarter, he showed no rust.
Dennis Schroder wasn’t clicking like he was in a tidy 21-point, nine-assist debut, trying too often to slip bounce passes into tight spaces. But when he fired a backdoor pass to George, who flipped over his head to Steven Adams trailing for running floater, you saw the trio’s improvisational flair.
The Timberwolves had flair, too. Aside from boos for head coach/ president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau, who some Target Center fans definitely aren’t happy with amid the Butler trade situation, Derrick Rose drew the loudest noise of the night from the sparsely populated stands.
Rose crossover dribbled past Terrance Ferguson into the path of Patterson and the crowd loved it ... until the 6-foot-9, 230-pound Patterson shuffled his feet quickly and forced the 6-3, 190-pound Rose to continue his dribble up the baseline.
Adams was efficient and dominant for the second consecutive game, posting 14 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes, but was most impressive getting isolated against Wiggins, staying on balance, and swatting his jump shot away easily.
Aside from Ferguson, the Thunder’s starters didn’t play the fourth quarter, sticking with coach Billy Donovan’s theme from the first preseason game Wednesday. It wasn’t necessary.
There will be plenty of regular-season games where the Thunder starters will be needed deep into the game. Friday wasn’t one of them, the defense assured it.
“Defensively we did a good job of just staying locked in, staying engaged,” George said. “We communicated. We were very talkative.
“You see that one stop leads to another and it gets contagious.”