MIDTERM GRADES
What Thunder lacks in shooting it has in identity at midway mark
About an hour after the Thunder’s win against the Spurs on Saturday, Russell Westbrook emerged from the back of the locker room, bandanna wrapped around his head, in a cooler mood.
Yes, his Dallas Cowboys had just lost a playoff game to the Los Angeles Rams, but the Thunder had a victory at the end of a winless week. Westbrook — bespectacled, dressed in black — spoke to the media about Dennis Schroder’s performance and the Thunder’s defensive stand. When his face turned up from his phone to answer each question, two red scratch marks stood out around his forehead and the bridge of his nose.
At the season’s midway mark, what the Thunder lacks in arguably the NBA’s most valuable asset, it doesn’t lack in identity.
If you were to make a movie poster to represent this Thunder team through 42 games, it would look a lot like Westbrook’s battlescarred face and monochromatic attire from Saturday. This Thunder team is bonded by a fast, aggressive and unyielding style of defense despite depth issues, middling numbers on offense and a substandard shooting start from its former Most Valuable Player.
A season ago, the loss of Andre Roberson hurt the Thunder’s postsea-
son hopes. This season, the Thunder is No. 1 in defensive efficiency (102.9 points allowed per 100 possessions) without Roberson touching the floor.
“We preach team defense so it’s never truly one-on-one with us,” said Thunder forward Jerami Grant, who has strengthened the Thunder’s starting lineup in the wake of the Carmelo Anthony trade this past summer. “The basis of our defense is if somebody is beat, there’s always somebody there to help.”
Good, because the Thunder’s 3-point and free throw percentages rank among the worst in the league. They are problems based on roster built for speed, not comfort, the length and athleticism plan of general manager Sam Presti to put a legion of multi-positional athletes around Westbrook in the post-Kevin Durant landscape.
It doesn’t help the Thunder’s 20th-ranked offense when Patrick Patterson and Alex Abrines — needed perimeter floor spacers off the bench — are shooting 32.7 percent and 32.3 percent, respectively, from 3-point range.
“It’s less pressure on Russ and PG (Paul George) and those guys to provide points every night,” said Patterson of what happens when him and Abrines hit shots.
Those are players receiving fewer than seven shots per game combined, however.
Despite little concern inside the Thunder, Westbrook’s ongoing battle with his shot is an issue. Westbrook is taking three times as many shots as the aforementioned bench players, but is seeing them fall at his lowest rate since his second season. He’s thrived in every area but scoring efficiency.
So, how does the Thunder still sit third in the Western Conference and 2½ games out of the top spot?
On Saturday, the Thunder started 1-of-10 from the field, going four minutes between George baskets, yet only trailed by two points midway through the first quarter. Amid a league where shooting is hoarded, it was a case study in the Thunder’s alternative method to success.
LaMarcus Aldridge shredded the Thunder for 56 points and 16 free throws on Thursday, but on Saturday had just 14 shot attempts and one free throw attempt. He received the ball against Grant in the post, and Terrance Ferguson (another revelation this season at age 20) slid from the backside to double team him. Ferguson’s head was on a swivel. He looked like he was running suicide sprints between the 6-foot-11 Aldridge and his defensive assignment in the opposite corner, retreating quickly after Aldridge passed out of the post.
“I think at one point I didn’t know if we’d get to 50 at the half,” Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan said, a question that’s arisen more than once this season for the Thunder.
“The thing that was encouraging to me was we came out of the locker room and we defended closer to our identity that we’d been for most of the year.”
All defenses crack eventually. The Thunder went through a week-and-ahalf fit of teams exposing it in the pick-and-roll, unable to contain the ballhandler or rotate quickly enough with help defense against the hard-charging centers of Utah, Phoenix and Dallas. The trio did its scouting.
In the three games those problems popped up, the Thunder still won. OKC has had fewer games this season when it’s been derailed by defense.
Offense has been the issue, and so much of the Thunder’s offense comes down to Westbrook. He was shooting nearly 49 percent from the field to start the season — more at the rim, more free throws, fewer 3-pointers — before a nasty left ankle sprain in mid-November.
If and when that rhythm returns, the Thunder still will have accumulated scrapes and scratches from how it wants to play. Westbrook wears them nightly, a reminder of what the Thunder leans on.
“I think everyone in this locker room tries to play defense first,” Schroder said. “That’s our identity.”