This year’s San Antonio Spurs had the best defense of any NBA team over the past four seasons. Their offense was certainly dynamic as well, but unlike recent years when they stunned the opposition with ball movement and distributed shooting, this incarnation of Gregg Popovich’s team grew into a juggernaut by preventing others from scoring.
Now the table has been upended.
In Games 4 and 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, the Oklahoma City Thunder dug in late and put in the best defensive performances of this series. They have held the Spurs to a sub-Sixers-level of 83.7 points per 100 possessions during the last two fourth quarters, per NBA.com. San Antonio has made just 13-of-42 (31.0%) shots, including 2-of-10 from behind the arc, during these critical 24 minutes.
They scored a miserable 16 points in the final period of Game 4 and just 19 in Game 5, getting outscored by 18 and 7 in those quarters, respectively. Tony Parker was the biggest cause of futility in the most recent loss, missing 4 of 5 shots.
After the game, Spurs guard Danny Green said, “I think they’re doing a great job of scouting us. They’re taking away what we’re looking for.”
There is no debating the excellent job done by Billy Donovan to find the correct schemes, lineups, and preparation methods to enjoy his players stay on top of the little things.
Dion Waiters agrees. “Coach’s doing a hell of a job, man,” said Waiters after Game 5. “He’s doing a hell of a job.”
One huge play came during the Spurs most important possession.
While it looked like a routine miss from Parker, a breakdown by Mike Prada of SB Nation shows how Russell Westbrook made a great read and kept the Spurs from getting the offense they wanted — and expected — to get.
With two potential passes to Kawhi Leonard shut off, Parker had to freelance, and his isolation jumper from the top of the key wasn’t even close.
If that goes in, the Spurs take a 1-point lead with 11 seconds to play and very well might be the squad sitting on a 3-2 lead in the series. In a matchup this tight, that is difference — the slimmest of margins in which minor variations in execution can turn careers.
If Oklahoma City and Kevin Durant bow out in round two, does the former MVP think more about leaving in free agency? That could admittedly be an overly dramatic way to look at it, but small plays (and this one Westbrook example is far from the only set that the Thunder snuffed out) do carry great importance in these games.
In addition to Parker’s fourth-quarter struggles, LaMarcus Aldridge has been giving the Spurs nothing late. After dropping 38 and 41 points in Games 1 and 2 — on a combined 33-of-44 (75.0%) shooting — he has turned into a pumpkin. Aldridge put up just 4 points in the last two fourths quarters combined, and his disappearance from the offense has left a hole that not even Kawhi Leonard has been able to fill.
While not known for his defense, the addition of Enes Kanter into OKC’s lineup in crunch time has been paying dividends. Playing the Turkish big man instead of three-time All-Defensive first-teamer Serge Ibaka has been a gutsy call by Donovan. If it didn’t work out, the rookie coach would be second guessed left and right. Rather than stay safe, he has increasing gone with a combination that played together for just 127 minutes in the regular season.
That’s less that half the 385 minutes Kanter shared the hardwood with Randy Foye, a player who just joined the Thunder in February via trade. Though rare, it has been undoubtedly effective, with Donovan leaving Kanter on the floor for the entire final 18 minutes in Game 5 and watching his team go on a 13-3 run in the closing 4 minutes with the Stache Brothers doing the big man duties.
That nickname was previously just due to their looks, but halfway through this playoff series it has become an actual dynamic duo on the court. The Kanter/Steven Adams combo posted a +15 in 17 minutes together in Game 5 off the heels of a +16 in Game 4 while paired for 17 minutes, as noted by Dan Feldman. This is after the two didn’t share the court for a second in Game 1.
The adjustment by Donovan has paid off, and even Kanter was shocked at his newfound defensive success. “After the game, I looked at the stat sheet, and it said I had three blocked shots,” he told Anthony Slater after the win. “I was pretty shocked.”
For his part, Adams says it’s not that Oklahoma City is shutting down Aldridge. It’s just a case of this being a make-or-miss league. “We’re still doing the same stuff and he’s just missing shots,” he said. “We haven’t changed anything. That’s obviously really good for us.”
Basketball is a funny game.
If Parker hits that shot, Donovan is not seen as a genius, the Kanter-over-Ibaka move seems like a poor choice, and the Stache Brothers gimmick remains just a t-shirt rather than a good on-court pairing. Most of all the Thunder’s late-game defensive success would come off looking more like bad Spurs’ offense that a championship-caliber team was able to overcome when it mattered most.
As with Dwyane Wade in Miami, the world would swoon over a throwback Tony Parker jumper, the sign of a legend putting his game-long struggles aside in the clutch.
But it didn’t.
Which is nice because there is no disputing that Donovan is pushing the right buttons. There have been some shaky moments — in this series and all year long — but the coach currently understands his team and is recognizing where its advantages lie.
There happens to be a pretty, pretty, pretty good coach on the other bench as well. So it is altogether possible that the Spurs steal Game 6 in Oklahoma then head back to Texas and take the series in Game 7.
Process-wise, though, Donovan is doing the right thing and the Thunder are executing when it matters. A blowout loss in Game 1 and a chaotic ending to Game 2 added some fog of war to the early stage of this matchup.
Now, however, Donovan and his players have taken three of the past four games against a team that looked far superior to the Thunder throughout the regular season.
To finish the job, Oklahoma City will need even more heroics from its two Hall of Famers. But no matter what happens going forward, some great defense in winning time — plus timely success by a few guys with mustaches — have gotten them this far.
The Cavs: We 3 Kings
While we all marvel at the long-range exploits of the reigning NBA champs in Oakland, some guys in Cleveland are shooting the lights out.
In their four-game sweep of the Atlanta Hawks they just hit 75-of-152 (50.7%) shots from behind the arc. While that type of accuracy — led by a record-setting 25 triples in Game 2 — was other-worldy, it wasn’t like they were missing many against the Detroit Pistons in round one either. Cleveland made 57-of-138 (41.3%), and altogether are now on pace to shatter the record for made triples in the playoffs by a team.
By hitting an ungodly 16.8 longballs per game (SIXTEEN POINT EIGHT!!!), they have hit 134 overall in the postseason, leaving them just 106 shy of the all-time mark set last year by the Warriors. Depending upon how the next (presumably) two series go, reaching that number might not be guaranteed.
Of course, the number of games is the main factor here.
Assuming they make the Finals (which anyone who has seen the Raptors and Heat play should), th Cavaliers have a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 14 games left. If it is only 8, they need to hit 13.3 per game whereas if both the East finals and the real Finals go to 7 games, they can set a new high by averaging *only* 7.6 per game.
Then there is the little matter of the Warriors.
Though Golden State has *only* averaged 12.2 made treys per outing in its 10 games so far, its higher game count has them not far behind Cleveland at 122 makes overall.
Considering that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson could make up that 14-triple game by themselves in one game, this is anyone’s race.
The final number, and who gets higher, is mostly trivial. But the fact that another team is actually outpacing — and really blowing away — the Warriors’ 3-point rate just goes to show how integral the shot has become to the game.
The number of attempts and makes has skyrocketed in the playoffs over the past four seasons. As recently as the 2012 postseason, the 16 playoff teams combine to average just 17.8 tries and 5.9 makes per game.
This year, like last, the number of attempts is over 25 and the number of makes is nearly 9. That is almost 27 points per game coming on 3s now compared to less than 18 in 2012.
And that evolution is not just trivia — especially when the Cavaliers are hitting almost twice as many 3s per game in the playoffs as the league average.
So as the inevitability of a Cavs/Warriors Finals re-match looks ever more certain, this is at least one thing to pay attention to as the rest of appetizers to that showdown play out.
It’s hard to believe the Cavaliers will continue to make more than 16 (!!!) 3-pointers every night. Then again, given who they’ll face in the East finals, perhaps they are just getting warmed up.
Regardless, we’re talking about a Cleveland team that has been taking more than 4 out of every 10(42.3%) field goal attempts of its shots from behind the arc on a collision course with these Warriors.
So we seem destined to see the most 3-happy Finals of all time.
Words With Friends
This week’s five must-read articles about the NBA. Excerpts here — click through to read the full piece.
1. Value of the vertical jump: How Combine results relate to NBA success
by Ian McMahan, Sports Illustrated
A 2014 study … [tested] the theory that physical size and athleticism are markers of yet to be realized potential, the researchers investigated a number of variables, including age, college performance, player position, college quality, height, agility, no-step vertical leap, arm span, and weight. From there the researchers tried to predict success in the first three years of NBA performance, a critical period in a young player’s career. The results? Even though physical size and athleticism predicted draft order, the only variables that predicted NBA success were college quality, college performance, and youth. The study concludes, “To clarify, our argument is that these physical characteristics have already contributed to achievement and training opportunities by the time the player reaches the NBA and thus does not differentiate player class at the professional level.”
2. Relatable, flexible Stotts pushing all the right buttons
by Ian Thomsen, NBA.com
“As the year went on, maybe my shot wasn’t feeling good in certain moments and I just wanted to revert back to what I had known,” said 6-foot-9 Aminu, who had been the No. 8 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Clippers. “Sometimes I felt like I’m not being aggressive enough. I’m just sitting out here shooting.” But Stotts wouldn’t have it. “He was like, ‘Hey, when the shot is open, you just take it,” Aminu said. “He said, ‘It’s not necessarily when you feel good about it. It’s the right shot for the team.’ It was just a whole different mindset.”
3. Warriors’ Leandro Barbosa Swears By a Remedy That Restored His Giddyup
by Scott Cacciola, New York Times
That Barbosa was able to recover so much of his quickness after undergoing knee surgery three years ago remains something of a medical mystery — a mystery, that is, to everyone except Barbosa, who cites clean living, hard work and a green liquid extract made from the leaves of a South American shrub called arnica do mato. “It burns going down,” said Barbosa, who scored 7 points in 13 minutes in the Warriors’ win Tuesday night. “You kind of feel dizzy if you’re not used to it. I got used to it.” Barbosa says he has his delivered direct from Brazil as an extract. He drinks it straight up, twice a day — once in the morning and once at night. It is not particularly delicious, he said. Then again, it was not originally intended for human consumption. “It’s a medicine you give horses,” Barbosa said. “Whenever they get hurt, it helps them recover very quickly. Because they have to run.”
4. Phil Jackson’s vacation tweets may be part of escape plan from Knicks
by Frank Isola, New York Daily News
Phil Jackson is either conducting the most eccentric coaching search ever or he’s simply trolling his boss, James Dolan, until he fires him. For Phil’s sake, you hope it’s the latter or else you have to start wondering if two-plus years at Dolan’s Garden are driving him mad.
5. Trail Blazers fight to the finish, primed for future battles
by Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN
There was no give, no surrender of spirit, no inkling that a patchwork team of mid-major guards and young castaways from around the league wasn’t supposed to push the defending champs, fresh off an historic 73-win season, into precarious late-game situations time and again in the conference semifinals. The Trail Blazers ultimately dropped Game 5, 125-121, and the series to Golden State, but following the final horn, there was near unanimity on both sides that the Portland Trail Blazers played one hell of a series.