WOE-AND-FOUR
Thunder’s offense can’t back up defense
This is the new era of the NBA. Great defense can only hold for so long.
For much of the fourth quarter, Alex Abrines did his best to stay in front of the slippery Kyrie Irving. The Boston guard was twice stymied trying to shake past Abrines, but on an offensive rebound with the Thunder ahead by two late in the fourth quarter, Irving got a third opportunity.
The Thunder’s defense showed up after a poor performance four days prior. It’s offense didn’t in a 101-95 loss to the Celtics, dropping the Thunder to 0-4 in its first four games for the first time in franchise history.
In the final minute, the shots Russell Westbrook received were the ones the Thunder talked about him working on in the offseason: Catch-andshoot 3-pointers. But time and place has always been a challenge in the Westbrook shot arsenal.
He took a catch-andshoot 3-pointer in a 95-95 game with 45.9 seconds left which missed. He’d finish 0-of-5 from deep,
several on clean looks.
When Marcus Morris answered with a 3-point shot to put the Celtics ahead for good, the Thunder still could have went for score-slicing drive, but Westbrook went for 3 again. Missing.
“The shot Russell took with 27 seconds ... I thought we could get him into some space to either drive it or shoot it, and I said you’ve got to read how they play you,” Donovan said. “I think he got off a pretty clean look on that one.”
There’s a reason Westbrook is getting those clean looks.
Even after an 11-2 burst to start the game, the Thunder was moving the ball, but not finishing.
Westbrook brought the ball up and executed a dribble handoff with George on the right wing.
George passed to Adams and cut hard to the rim for Adams to hit him with a perfect bounce pass.
George was fouled and didn’t finish at the rim.
Patrick Patterson, Nerlens Noel, Steven Adams the only players with two more shot attempts who finished better than 43 percent from the field. Compound that with woeful free throw shooting (14-of-25), and even the Thunder hopeful surges were nervous times, leaning on a tired defense to come through.
For most of the game, the Thunder’s defense was leaps and bounds better than the 131-point shellacking the Kings laid on it on Sunday. The offense was the issue this time, as it has been in the Thunder’s four losses in which it’s only cracked 100 points once.
In the last 56.6 seconds Thursday, the Celtics scored the final six points.
The Thunder went 0-of-4 in the final 1:20 after an Adams free throw gave OKC its last lead.
A constant on Thursday TNT national broadcast was Marv Albert and Chris Webber referencing the Thunder’s lack of shooting. Outside observers descended into Oklahoma City for a night and witnessed what those with Fox Sports Oklahoma have known for three seasons.
So with that truth — and the Thunder entering Thursday’s game with the worst shooting percentage in the NBA at 39 percent — the defense had to be airtight.
It was for the first half, the Celtics missed their first 11 3-point attempts, not hitting one until the first possession of the second half. The script was bound to flip. Then Al Horford hit three 3-pointers in a 54-second span in the third quarter to cut the Thunder’s 13-point lead to six.
The Thunder as a team shot 39.4 percent, barely better than its season average. Yet, the Thunder still outshot Boston’s 38.4 percent, just another example that good defense won’t hold for long.
In a league that’s put a premium on both, the Thunder’s dearth of consistent shooting and finishing is glaringly obvious, no matter how Westbrook tries to paint it.
“No need to panic,” Westbrook said. “We’re not starting the way we wanted to, but we’ll be OK. I’ll make sure of that. I’m not worried.”