How Steven Adams affects OKC's paint touches
Two spin moves was all Thunder center Steven Adams needed to tear himself away from the Grizzlies' two big men and sink a turnaround hook shot.
At the beginning of the second half, it was just the Thunder's fifth basket in the paint.
If there was going to be a night when Adams could take an extended break without the Thunder feeling the effects, it should have been Thursday. Memphis had traded away
Marc Gasol (and three other players) at the trade deadline, so it started center Ivan Rabb for just the second time this season. But OKC got a taste of life without Adams for much of the first half, and it didn't go well.
Adams picked up three fouls within the first six minutes of the game and sat for the rest of the half.
“It was just being dumb,” Adams said of the fouls. “Like, trying to make a hustle play at the wrong time leads to fouls. It's not the right time to try to make it up. Just accept the turnover or whatever it is. Move on.”
When its centers are healthy and not in foul trouble, the Thunder roster sets up a variety of looks for the opposing team. With the starting lineup, OKC has the 7-foot, 265pound Adams, who is a force in pick-and-roll coverage and a bulldozer in the low post. With the second unit, there's lanky
Nerlens Noel, who can switch onto almost any player and ranks in the top 10 for blocks per 100 possessions.
When in a bind, or in a smallball lineup, the Thunder can slide Patrick Patterson over from power forward to the five position.
With 6:12 remaining in the first quarter, OKC found itself without a traditional grind-itout-down-low center. Against the Grizzlies' unique style of zone defense, the Thunder turned to its 3-point shooting. By the end of the first quarter, only one of its eight baskets came from 2-point range. At halftime, OKC had only added three more field goals inside the arc, and it trailed Memphis by two points.
Adams, who finished with 11 points, re-entered after halftime to score his first basket of the game almost immediately. He logged six points, all in the paint, in less than two minutes.
“It was good to have a balance, to have Steve-O in the paint,” Thunder forward Paul George said. “It was a big presence and a good lift for us to get him down there and scoring.”
Adams' skill set was important, but more important was how the Thunder used it. The team went back to racking up paint touches.
Facing Shumpert
After Iman Shumpert put up 26 and 23 points in the Thunder and Kings' first two meetings — Shumpert's only two 20-point games of the season — OKC seemed to catch a break when the veteran guard missed their third matchup due to a right hip contusion.
Then on Thursday, Sacramento traded Shumpert to Houston as a part of a threeteam deal. The Thunder faces the Rockets on Saturday in one of two remaining meetings this regular season. The Thunder is scheduled to play Sacramento just once more.