Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant scored 18 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs to help the Thunder even the series at 2-2 with a 109-103 win.

Durant had scored 18 points in the first three quarters for Oklahoma City and then completely took over in the fourth scoring 16-straight points for the Thunder in one stretch.

Durant had only scored 10 points in the fourth quarters of Games 1-3 combined heading into Game 4 and was just 1-for-5 from the field as well.

The Thunder found something that worked and they went to it the rest of the game. Scott Brooks will do this a lot in the fourth quarters of games.

Brooks did this with James Harden in the fourth quarter of Game 4 vs. the Mavericks in the first round. He did it with the Russell Westbrook and Durant pick-and-roll back in January against the Warriors too.

The Thunder ran the same exact play on 10-consecutive half court possessions in the fourth quarter beginning at the 7:25 mark with the Thunder ahead 86-80 and ending with 1:04 left and the Thunder leading 105-96.

It’s a simple play that the Thunder have run many times before and is very effective because it involves Durant, Westbrook and Harden.

Westbrook brings the ball up and waits for Harden to come off two screens on the baseline and pop out to the left wing. After Westbrook passes to Harden, he goes and sets a downscreen on Durant’s man on the right block. Durant then pops up to the top of the key and Westbrook flattens out to the right corner.

The play worked against the Spurs last night in every way possible. When Durant got the ball at the top of the key, he scored nearly every time in an isolation situation. When the Spurs switched the screen and had Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili on Durant, he took advantage and scored going to the rim.

The Thunder even got Harden two wide open 3-point looks from the set when Kendrick Perkins would come up to set a back pick on Harden’s man after Durant made the catch.

This set is nothing special for the Thunder but you don’t have to be special with your play-calling with the Thunder. It works because it spaces the floor nicely and puts Durant in an area where he is very comfortable going to work.

The Thunder hadn’t found a go-to play yet against the Spurs in fourth quarters. They had go-to plays against the Mavericks and Lakers and now look to have found something for San Antonio.

With the series headed back to San Antonio for Game 5 Monday night, the Thunder can expect a much tougher effort from the Spurs than they saw in Oklahoma City. Role players aren’t as good on the road so more of the burden will lie with Durant.

Durant is ready for this though especially after his 18-point fourth quarter in Game 4.

Brendan Maloney-US PRESSWIRE

James Harden had an uncharacteristically bad showing in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals as the Thunder lost 101-98 to the Spurs.

Harden scored 19 points in that game and was 7-for-17 from the field but did not attempt a single free throw for the first time this year.

Harden did not look himself as the Spurs’ game plan to defend the Thunder in the pick-and-roll worked very well.

The Spurs basically let the Thunder ball handler come off the screen with no pressure and gave them space, playing to defend the drive.

For Harden, this seemed to work especially well. Harden’s game is simple when you look at where he attacks the defense. He either shoots threes or attacks the rim and does very little in between.

Harden hit a few threes in the game but couldn’t get anything going toward the rim. The Spurs were ready for him and contested without fouling and also drew two charges on him.

The midrange pull-up jump shot was the look San Antonio was conceding Harden and he rarely took it. Harden rarely takes midrange shots in general, attempting just 1.1 shots per game this season from between 10-to-15 feet.

In Game 2, we saw Harden adjust.

Here we see Harden confidently take three midrange jump shots and make all of them. This helped to open up the rest of Harden’s offensive game as well.

Harden scored 30 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and from the free throw line. Harden only attempted one 3-pointer in the game too.

Having Harden play well is vitally important for the Thunder and while Oklahoma City is still down 0-2 in the series, it would feel a lot worse if Harden had played two poor games as well.

Expect Harden along with Durant and Westbrook to play a little better when they are at home for Games 3 and 4 and get this series back even at 2-2.

Soobum-Im-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder led the San Antonio Spurs 71-62 after three quarters and looked well on their way toward stealing Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on the road.

Then the Spurs came back. Their offense came alive and the Thunder’s became stagnant, looking like the isolation-heavy late-game offense they’ve been criticized for in the past.

The Thunder losing the game mostly had to do with allowing 39 points in the fourth quarter. But they weren’t playing their best defensive lineup as Serge Ibaka sat the entire fourth and they still could have won the game or kept it closer had they executed down the stretch themselves.

The Thunder started the fourth small and finished it the same way with Kevin Durant playing the four. They begin the fourth with Fisher-Harden-Cook-Durant-Collison. So basically, no chance against the Spurs’ pick-and-roll as Durant and Harden really don’t enjoy rotating over.

The Thunder begin the quarter trying to get Harden going who was struggling up to this point. They run his pick-and-roll play from the right wing on the first two possessions. He makes a pull-up jumper on the first then on a very similar situation, tries to drive at Tiago Splitter and picks up a charge on the next play.

The Spurs are defending the pick-and-roll by allowing the ball handler to freely come off the pick and sagging into the paint to prevent them getting a good angle to attack the rim. The Thunder did not see this kind of defense against the pick-and-roll in the first round and weren’t sure what to do at times it seemed.

Harden found himself open for a lot of midrange jumpers, a shot he rarely takes. Harden only attempted 1.1 shots per game from between 10-to-23 feet in the regular season. This helped result in Harden pressing and forcing contested layups over prepared bigs.

On the next possession, the Thunder post-up Durant on the left side about 12-feet out. This is the only time they would do this in the quarter. Durant finds Collison cutting in the paint here but Collison misses a tough shot at the rim.

Stephen Jackson was guarding Durant the entire fourth quarter and is getting a lot of credit for the way he defended him. It was a lot like how he defended Dirk Nowitzki back in 2007 when the Warriors knocked of the Mavericks in the first round. He was getting up into him closely and allowing Durant to attempt to drive left.

Durant is much worse driving left when he is looking to attack the rim. He always prefers to drive right to get a layup. When Durant goes left, he is much more efficient going for a pull-up or stepback jump shot.

Russell Westbrook now checks in for Daequan Cook as the Spurs are now within five points.

Westbrook has also been relatively struggling at this point in the game. They run a play where Durant comes up from a downscreen to pick for Westbrook at the top of the key. This usually leaves room for Westbrook to look to attack on this play but Tony Parker defends it well and contests a Westbrook pull-up that he misses.

The Thunder try and get Westbrook going again on the next possession and let him isolate at the top of the key. He misses a wild runner going to his left. Westbrook is always better when able to play on offense under control and look for his pull-up. The Spurs enticed him to attack the rim a lot in Game 1 and he became out of control and inefficient.

The Thunder get a rare second half transition opportunity next but Harden doesn’t take advantage and charges on Gary Neal. Harden didn’t have a ton of room here and it was clear Neal was prepared for Harden to eurostep to his left. He anticipated it to draw the charge. Harden was out of rhythm all game and should have seen to eurostep to his right and would have finished the layup.

On the next possession, Westbrook misses another erratic layup attempt going to his left. The Thunder decide here to try and go back to Harden some in the pick-and-roll.

Harden runs a pick-and-pop with Durant and passes Durant which he almost always does on this play. Harden is pretty much never looking to drive when he runs the pick-and-pop with Durant. He may not like the angles he gets because Durant never really sets a solid screen and just pops.

Durant ends up having to isolate again with Jackson doing a good job of crowding him beyond the 3-point line. Durant tries to clear some space and catches Jackson with an elbow and the foul is called on Durant.

The Thunder do not go to Harden as the ball handler in pick-and-rolls the rest of the game now with 7:41 left and the score tied at 73.

The Thunder try Westbrook getting a pick from Durant at the top of the key twice more over the next three possessions. Westbrook is in driving mode now and the Thunder do end up scoring twice off his passes.

The Thunder then have two possessions where the play turns into a Durant isolation when that wasn’t totally the design of the play. This is when the standing around and lack of ball movement really begins.

Durant isn’t even inefficient when this happens and he got fouled a lot in the quarter which isn’t all bad but it seemed to affect the Thunder offense in that they were now just standing around watching. Westbrook and Harden knew they didn’t have it and were completely deferring to Durant.

The Thunder were forced into nothing but half court offense down the stretch and with Harden not playing well, it became a huge issue. They weren’t getting stops so they weren’t getting fast break opportunities and since they were playing so small, they weren’t getting any offensive rebounds either.

This is when people say the Thunder hurt because they don’t have someone to post-up. It’s not that they don’t have someone, it’s that they don’t go to him in the post. Durant had an advantage over Jackson inside and they only posted him up once. Jackson was doing a nice job on Durant but fouled him four times in the quarter.

The Thunder should have posted up Durant even though he’s not totally comfortable down there yet and that isn’t their identity yet. It was an adjustment that would have countered the way Jackson was defending Durant and could have gotten Durant a few more trips to the line and kept the game within striking distance.

The Thunder did not adjust though in the fourth quarter whether it was posting Durant up or bringing back Ibaka. The adjustments will have to wait for Game 2 and if they don’t come then, this series could end up being a short one for OKC.

But it was Durant’s defense on Kobe Bryant in the final four minutes of the game that really swayed the momentum in the Thunder’s favor.

Kobe made a 17-foot fadeaway over James Harden from the right baseline to put the Lakers ahead 96-90 with 4:28 left in the game. Durant started covering Kobe after that shot.

“He said, ‘You get ‘em,’” Durant said of head coach Scott Brooks telling him to start covering Kobe. “I had to go guard him. I couldn’t tell Coach no. I didn’t want to back down from the challenge.”

Kobe missed his next five shots and only scored two more meaningful points the rest of the game.

Kobe had 34 points before Durant started guarding him and was for the second straight game killing the Thunder on offense in the post and getting to the free throw line.

Durant played Kobe some at the end of Game 3 and was effective then as well. Brooks probably saw this and knew it would be a good matchup for the Thunder at this point in the game.

“He wants to guard him,” Brooks said. “We like putting Thabo [Sefolosha], James [Harden] and Kevin on him. It was about three and [a] half minutes to go, and I made the decision. I thought that was the right thing to do at the time. Kobe was making shots like he always seems to do, but I thought Kevin did a good job of using his length and bothering him.”

Durant’s length is key to stopping Kobe. He is listed at 6-foot-9 but most people know he’s probably closer to 7-feet. With Kobe not having the quickness he used to, Durant doesn’t even lose anything guarding Kobe in that department either.

Kobe was having the most success getting physical with those defending him and fighting for position. He was getting a lot of foul calls on these plays in the last two games and it made defenders like Harden and Sefolosha have to be more tentative when contesting his shots.

Durant didn’t have to worry about playing physical. He could play off him and force him into tough, contested jumpers which he did.

“It was pretty much the same thing, except in the fourth quarter they crowd me and they shrink the floor,” Kobe said. “The driving lanes close off. [Serge] Ibaka’s more active coming off of rotations. But when you have the ball with the shot clock going down, it’s tough to get everybody in the right spots.”

Durant’s improved defense this season has been overlooked somewhat until last night. He has become more focused and engaged defensively and when he really locks in, he can be extremely effective on a number of elite players.

In the Thunder’s first meeting with the Miami Heat this season, Durant played and essentially shut down LeBron James in the same way that he did Kobe last night.

It is unlikely that Brooks would ever elect to have Durant cover Kobe for an entire game. But using him down the stretch on him to change things up and make Kobe alter his approach in crunch time is something we should expect again if another game comes down to the wire.

The Thunder trailed 81-68 entering the fourth quarter and it looked like the series would be going back to Oklahoma City.

Then Harden took over the game. The Thunder offense went exclusively through him as it usually does when he’s out there with the bench unit and it also continues to when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook checked back in.

An interesting thing to note here too is that Scott Brooks took Durant out with a few minutes left in the third quarter and when he does that it usually means Durant will start the fourth quarter and play the rest of the game.

If Durant starts the fourth does Harden completely take over? Maybe not.

In the fourth quarter the Thunder would have 22 offensive possessions. Twenty of them came in the half court and 15 straight of them were Harden dribbling down, getting one pick and creating everything.

Let’s go through the entire fourth quarter for the Thunder.

The first three possessions, the Thunder run their Corner 2 set that featured Harden and Nick Collison in dribble handoff action.

Harden comes off a Collison screen and drives left to the paint and then finds Daequan Cook throwing a pass across his body for the three. When Harden makes passes, shooters make shots because the basketball Gods love his passes.

11:38 – Dallas up 81-71

Harden drives left again off of a Collison screen and the ball is poked away out of bounds by Delonte West from behind. Cook then finds Serge Ibaka wide open for a dunk on a slip from the baseline out of bounds play.

10:56 – Dallas up 81-73

Before the ball can go to Collison on the next possession, Derek Fisher reads an opening to drive on the pick-and-roll and then misses the pull-up jumper.

10:11 – Dallas up 83-73

Durant checks back in. Now the Thunder are just having Harden bring the ball up usually to the right wing and bring a screen to him above the 3-point line. Harden drives hard left and gets fouled from behind and gets the continuation layup to fall and makes the free throw.

9:29 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden this time when he gets into the paint goes to his right and misses the tough layup. Ibaka follows up the offensive rebounds and misses the putback.

9:00 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden gets the pick-and-roll but nothing is there right away. He backs off then goes straight into West on the isolation drive and finishes with a tough eurostep from 10-feet away. Dallas fans wanted the travel.

Here are his last two buckets.

8:33 – Dallas up 86-78

Westbrook checks back in. Harden gets his screen again and goes hard to his left finishing with the layup.

8:07 – Dallas up 86-80

Harden gets the screen but there isn’t a lot of space to drive and kicks back to Durant who comes up some to the right wing and Durant drills the three. Again, shooters knock down shots when Harden is the passer.

7:26 – Dallas up 86-83

Harden gets the pick and splits the defenders on his way to the huge monster dunk.

6:39 – Dallas up 86-85

Dallas now decides to go to their matchup zone so that Harden can’t as easily attack the paint. It works in a way. Harden has to kick out to Westbrook on the left wing after the pick. Westbrook drives and kicks back out to Harden who swings it to Durant on the right wing who nails the three.

6:05 – Tie game 88-88

Harden gets the pick again and quickly kicks out to Durant on the right wing. Dirk comes up to close out on Durant and Durant drives hard baseline past him and finishes with the flush.

5:33 – Dallas up 91-90

Westbrook strips Dirk on defense then finds a trailing Ibaka for the fast break dunk to give the Thunder their first lead of the quarter.

5:16 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Dallas still in the matchup zone. Harden waives off the Ibaka screen and goes one-on-one on Jason Kidd. He drives to his right and misses the layup over Ian Mahinmi.

4:37 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Harden again isolates with Kidd on him and drives left this time but loses his handle on the way to the rim. He regains it then kicks back out to Derek Fisher who drives in for the layup.

4:05 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Dallas is back in man. Harden gets the screen and drives left. Jason Terry helps on the drive and Harden kicks out to Westbrook on the left wing who misses the 3-pointer.

3:34 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Harden in the pick-and-roll and Mahinmi doesn’t hedge creating a situation where Harden has momentum driving right at Mahinmi. Harden gets to his right and is fouled shooting the layup and makes both.

3:00 – Oklahoma City up 96-91

Thunder try and go pick-and-roll again with Harden. Nothing is there and Harden kicks to Durant. The ball goes back to Harden at the end of the shot clock and he goes one-on-one with Shawn Marion on him and scores going to his left with the layup.

2:30 – Oklahoma City up 98-93

Dallas is looking to go back into their matchup zone here but the Thunder are overloaded on the left side of the floor. Dallas gets confused and Harden swings to Durant on the right wing before the pick-and-roll comes all the way. Dallas is scrambling and Durant finds Collison diving to the rim and he’s fouled shooting a layup and makes both free throws.

2:01 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

Dallas in the zone and Marion ends up on Harden who decides to just isolate on him. Marion is playing off him and Harden knows he can get the stepback three off. He misses it.

1:27 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go to Durant isolating at the top of the key. He has space and elects to go for the pull-up straightaway 3-pointer. He misses it.

0:48 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go back to Harden in the pick-and-roll while Dallas is back in man. Harden gets Kidd to switch on to him and then easily drives by him going to his right and the paint is wide open for him to finish with the layup.

So Harden scores 15 in the quarter and dishes out three assists (all for 3-pointers). The Thunder ran the same basic play on 15 straight half court possessions and it worked incredibly well.

I’ve said before that the Thunder are at their best doing exactly this. With Harden as the playmaker and Durant and Westbrook off the ball they are maximizing the three’s potential. We saw Harden of course do that in Game 4 and Durant too showed us how good he can be off the ball.

Westbrook’s greatest impact came on defense but he’s shown before how effective he can be off the ball when Harden has it.

It was so important for Oklahoma City to get Harden playing well in their first round series and that’s exactly what happened. The sweep of the defending champs proved that the Thunder are serious contenders and they will go as far as Harden takes them.

Durant went 10-for-27 in Game 1 and then 5-for-17 in Game 2. He has made some big plays most notably the Game 1 game-winner but getting that shooting number up will definitely be a priority for the Thunder moving forward.

Something that Oklahoma City has tried to get better at this season is getting Durant touches closer to the rim and in the post. Durant posted up 10.5 percent of the time this season. Last year he was only posting 6.5 percent of the time and two years ago 5.7 percent.

The 10.5 percent is still kind of low for a player like Durant but a step in the right direction as far as most people are concerned.

In the first two games against Dallas in this series, Durant has posted up 13 times. That doesn’t seem like a ton but it is more than he did during the regular season.

Durant has gone 4-for-8 from the field in those 13 possessions, turned the ball over three times and been fouled twice (once in the act of shooting).

Durant has flat out not appeared very comfortable posting up in these two games. One reason is that Durant has been guarded primarily by Shawn Marion who does a very good job on him.

Durant essentially does two things when he is in the post: he either shoots a jump shot over his right shoulder or tries to go strong to the rim over his left shoulder (or simply toward the middle of the floor usually).

Durant isn’t strong enough yet to develop the kind of post game that Dirk Nowitzki has and that’s surely what Durant is trying to eventually do already using that stepback one-footer (which by the way Durant has far from mastered as it seems to almost never go in).

So what should Durant be doing when he gets the ball in the post against Dallas? We know Oklahoma City is going to continue to try and get him touches down there and it’s a spot where he should be able to score since he is always 4-to-5 inches taller than his defender.

The best thing he ever does is face up. This is usually because he will get pushed out too far and in Durant’s case that’s almost a better thing. When he faces up he can either simply shoot over his defender (probably the best case) or drive strong to his right and draw contact.

When he drive to his right while having his back to the basket he seems to always lose his balance. But when he is already facing he is much more comfortable and can elevate on his way to the rim.

But it’s not always going to be easy for him to face up the way Dallas defends him. They like to get as close as possible to him and really body him up. This means Durant will have to try and go to shots with his back to the basket.

He looks the most comfortable going to the fadeaway over his right shoulder (most righties do). The one problem here and why Durant isn’t more effective with this shot is that he’s not one to put a lot of arc on his jumper like Dirk would. And while fading back that makes the shot very difficult to drop.

I’d like to see Durant try and go glass when he uses his fadeaway. He doesn’t do it often so I’m not going to hold my breath on this one but I think he’d make a higher percentage of these shots.

Either way, when he has his back to the basket he should almost always be going to that fadeaway. It’s an automatic clean look if nothing else.

Depending on how the game is being called I wouldn’t mind him trying to drive but it seems the only good that ever comes from that is a foul being called.

At the end of the day, it’s nice that Durant is posting more but I don’t know how useful it is going to be especially when he has a very solid defender like Marion covering him.

He’s just not ready to dominate from that position and until he learns to, the Thunder might be stuck one notch below the level of champion.

Serge Ibaka had been playing Dirk for most of the game and Scott Brooks switched Perkins on him late. Perkins forced Dirk into a miss and two turnovers and did it with simply great effort and energy.

In Game 2 we expected to see the same from the Thunder, going with Perkins on Dirk. It wasn’t featured early with Ibaka still getting some run on Dirk and foul trouble for everyone. But we did see the matchup late.

Dirk missed two huge shots in the final minutes, shots we’re not used to seeing him miss. He got great looks and he got them because Dallas adjusted to Perkins covering him.

In Game 1 Perkins covered Dirk in isolation and back-to-the-basket situations. That’s where Dirk was killing Ibaka.

Perkins took that away so Dallas went to using Dirk in the pick-and-roll when Perkins was on him in Game 2.

The first of Dirk’s misses was the most surprising. He became wide open for a three from the left wing after setting a screen for Jason Terry. Russell Westbrook was trailing Terry and Perkins forced to show at least a little. That left Dirk wide open and he missed the seemingly automatic look.

Dallas went to the same set on their next possession and this time Jason Kidd found Dirk open rolling to the basket. Ibaka came over to help and the set accomplished what it set out to at least to an extent and got Perkins away from Dirk.

Dirk posted Ibaka on the left block and went to his patented fadeaway one-footer. He did not get the roll and the Thunder would win the game because of these two misses.

At first look, I thought Dirk should have gone at Ibaka the way he always does when he has success: spinning to that right shoulder and getting contact going to the rim. Instead he went to the fallaway and Ibaka actually played the move well reacting very quickly to the spin and maybe Dirk sensed this and that’s why he went for that shot.

Dirk has been great in these first two games despite Dallas losing both. It will be a challenge for Oklahoma City to continue to play him decently heading on the road for the next two games.

But we’ve seen something we’re not used to with Dirk and that’s him not coming up absolutely huge in the final moments of games. The Thunder have done a good job effecting this and it may lead to them eventually winning this series.

Dallas was executing everything and making clutch shots and the game looked like it was going to come down to the Thunder executing on offense, something they didn’t do last year in the playoffs and something that even this year they still receive a lot of heat for.

They did a great job last night.

Trailing 96-94 with 1:03 left in the game, Thunder head coach Scott Brooks called timeout and called for one of the Thunder’s best sets that they’ve been running recently.

James Harden inbounds to Russell Westbrook who sets up at the top of the key waiting for Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins to come up and set a double screen.

Westbrook comes off the Perkins pick to the right predetermined and waits for Perkins to set another pick on Durant’s man to try and free Durant up at the top of the key.

In the past few weeks when the Thunder have run this set it has every time gotten Durant wide open at the top of the key. Last night, Dallas defended it well and Westbrook didn’t make the defense commit too much on him so Durant was covered tightly by Shawn Marion at the top of the key when Westbrook passes to him.

Perkins stays around Durant, reading the defense and realizing that Durant isn’t wide open and sets a ball screen on Marion. Durant uses it well and gets into the paint by Marion and Perkins’ man Ian Mahinmi.

Dirk Nowitzki is forced to come up and help on Durant who is ready (having just dumped off to Serge Ibaka for a dunk a few possession earlier) to find Ibaka cutting who finishes with the and-one dunk.

This has been Oklahoma City’s most effective set the past few weeks and it was great to see them go to it out of a timeout when they really needed a bucket.

Dallas covering it well was kind of a blessing because if Durant had been left wide open and tempted to take the three, he may have gone for it and missed since he was off with his shot for most of the night.

This was a better set for Oklahoma City to run at this time because if they had gone to the Westbrook-Durant pick-and-pop (which they do often down the stretch), it may have just resulted in a switch and Durant forced into a tough isolation jumper.

This is evidence of the Thunder taking steps in the right direction with their play down the stretch of tight games.

Kendrick Perkins would guard Nowitzki the rest of the way.

The Thunder went on a 7-0 run after that with Perkins forcing Nowitzki into a missed three-pointer and then two turnovers on three of the next four possessions.

Nowitzki struggled to start the game but came alive in the fourth quarter and began looking like the Finals MVP again.

Ibaka is a great defender in his own right but the matchup with Nowitzki favors Dallas. Ibaka is better as a help-side shot blocker and playing up tightly on Nowitzki isn’t an easy task.

Perkins’ value was realized tonight and it was huge.

The Thunder were struggling earlier in the quarter trying to go small and get offense using Kevin Durant at the four. Durant’s shot was not falling so there was no advantage for the Thunder and they were giving up better interior defense by going small.

I love Durant at the four on offense but this team is better when they have Perkins and Ibaka out there with the big three.

That showed tonight and especially with Ibaka giving something offensively as well the Thunder looked their best in the final minutes.

Ibaka covered Nowitzki for most of the game but I think it will benefit the Thunder to have Perkins cover him some more that way Ibaka can also be used as the help guy to block shots.

The one problem here is that Perkins could get in foul trouble early if he’s matched up with Nowitzki. It will be up to the entire team to play with the intensity on defense they did down the stretch to help Perkins with this assignment.

James Harden was not returning to the game after the elbow he received from Metta World Peace and the Thunder had to rely solely on Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to create shots. The two struggled in the game with Durant going 11-for-34 and Westbrook 3-for-22.

The Thunder looked like the Thunder team from the 2011 Playoffs. Their sets were not complex and it resulted in a lot of tough shots and isolation plays.

This is who the Thunder are and it has led them to being second in the NBA in offensive efficiency this season.

Not having Harden at the end of the game hurt although the Thunder do not use Harden much at the end of games, it’s usually just a heavy dose of Durant and Westbrook like it was yesterday.

For all of the negativity surrounding the Thunder and their late-game offense, they did show me two sets in the second overtime that I loved. Both sets were sets that they have run before this season and worked against the Lakers yesterday. They just haven’t gone to these sets enough in my opinion.

The first play comes with 3:06 left in the second overtime with the Thunder trailing 102-99 after Steve Blake has just made a three-pointer. Westbrook brings the ball up on the left side of the floor and is going to receive a double-screen on the wing from Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka while Durant is in the left corner.

Westbrook comes of the screens but not aggressively and stations at the top of the key waiting for Durant who is now coming off a double from Perkins and Ibaka.

Durant comes off it pretty open and he has an opportunity to shoot immediately but is a little hesitant. He holds the ball for a second and Perkins and Devin Ebanks are still jostling for position so Durant decides to shoot and makes the three.

This play reminds me a lot of the double-staggered look Dallas showed Miami in the NBA Finals last year that worked so well. Westbrook has the option to come off the double and look to score and then the Thunder are setting another double for Durant to get a look. If Durant doesn’t have the jumper, he still has Perkins there to set him a ball screen and attack as well as Ibaka spotting up in the corner.

The Thunder would run this set again two possessions later but Durant did a bad job of setting up Ebanks to come off the screen and Westbrook was forced to abandon the pass to Durant and attack off of a Perkins screen. He threw up a wild shot at the rim over Pau Gasol and was not bailed out with a call.

Trailing 104-102 with 1:18 left on their next possession, Oklahoma City went to a different set that I have seen them run a few times in the past week, always with great success. It starts with Westbrook at the top of the key and Perkins and Durant at the elbows ready to come up and set a double for Westbrook.

Westbrook comes off the Perkins screen on the right and Jordan Hill hedges hard off Perkins deterring Westbrook back out beyond the three-point line on the right wing.

After Perkins sets the initial screen, he goes to find Durant’s man and set a downscreen for Durant who is going to pop out at the top of the key.

Durant gets the pass at the top of the key and is actually wide open and could have gone for the three. Instead he decides to drive the wide open lane as Hill is still in the area of Westbrook and hasn’t retreated back to the paint to help on Durant.

When Hill gets back to help, Durant easily gets by him to his strong hand and finishes a tough layup at the rim to tie the game.

When the Thunder have run this play lately they always have Durant standing wide open at the top of the key for a three. They haven’t run it much this year but I hope this is a set they have ready to use down the stretch of games in the playoffs.

The best part about these sets is that it didn’t result in isolation offense by the Thunder. They use Westbrook coming off screens which draws a ton of attention fro the defense and then find Durant for catch-and-shoot opportunities, which he is the best in the world at. Perkins is used to set multiple screens which is really his only strength on offense and Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha are able to space the floor as spot-up threats.

The Thunder aren’t all the way better with their late-game offense, that is for sure. But have they improved from last year? Definitely. Hopefully, it will be enough.

The Thunder looked like a team that had been playing together forever while Portland looked like a bunch of guys playing together for the first time.

Kevin Durant scored 25 points in the game on 10-of-14 shooting. He didn’t miss a shot in the first half.

Durant is one of the purest shooters in the league from anywhere on the basketball court. One thing that you will always notice about the best shooters in the world is how effortless and automatic they can make certain shots seem. Durant does this with his midrange game. He makes 16-footers look like layups and a good look from that distance is one of the best shots the Thunder can work for.

In the first quarter against Portland, Oklahoma City ran a simple pick-and-roll for Durant that was designed and executed perfectly to get him this kind of look.

The set begins with Russell Westbrook bringing the ball up the court then handing it off to Durant at the top of the key. Kendrick Perkins is set up at the left elbow, Serge Ibaka at the right elbow and Thabo Sefolosha in the right corner.

After handing off to Durant, Westbrook runs off a Perkins screen toward the baseline. Westbrook sets up his man, rookie Nolan Smith, well and runs hard to quickly get into position and forces the Portland defense to help on him.

After Westbrook clears, Perkins comes up to set a screen for Durant at the three-point line. Meanwhile, Perkins’ man, Joel Pryzbilla, is still on the bottom block helping on Westbrook.

Durant waits for the screen and dribbles hard off it knowing that he is going to get an open shot because Perkins’ man isn’t coming up to hedge.

Durant easily drains the pull-up jumper with essentially no one contesting the shot.

I love this play for the Thunder because it is simple and a quick way to get a great shot for Durant. Using Westbrook to act as a decoy cutting to the rim and forcing help defense is very effective in creating for some extra space for Durant to get an open shot.

Perkins is also one of the best screen setters in the entire league and does a great job on this play setting both screens.

Oklahoma City has three of the best scorers in the NBA this season and doesn’t need to do a lot to help them score. But running plays like this early in the game to get someone like Durant into a nice rhythm could be very valuable come playoff time.

The Thunder cut that deficit to three with just over 30 seconds left then made a great defensive stop to force a turnover and give themselves a chance to tie the game and send it into another overtime.

With 16.1 seconds left and trailing 129-126, James Harden inbounded from half court for the Thunder. The play had Kevin Durant set up at the right (near) elbow, Russell Westbrook on the far wing, Derek Fisher in the far corner and Nick Collison on the near block.

From this set up the Thunder could have done a number of things. Earlier in regulation, Durant already hit a three in the final seconds after isolating at the top of the key and taking Anthony Tolliver off the dribble. Minnesota was probably expecting that again.

Durant comes to the ball and receives the inbound from Harden. Instead of isolating his man, Durant hands back to Harden who takes his dribble to the top of the key as Durant fades to the right wing.

Collison comes up to set a back screen on Durant’s man who is playing him very close and isn’t in good position to see Collison coming until it is too late. Kevin Love, who is guarding Collison, has a lot of space between him. With Harden at the top of the key there is still a chance that the Thunder may be going for a quick two, so Love can’t sell out on helping Durant.

This is a mistake as Harden delivers a perfect feed to Durant in the corner and Love is late getting too him.

Standing at 7-foot tall, Durant only needs a moment to get a clean look at the rim and stroke the three that would tie the game and send it into another overtime.

I like this play by the Thunder mainly because of the fact that they actually ran a play instead of just relying on isolation scoring. With Harden coming to the top of the key and time still remaining for the possible quick two, the set was designed nicely for Minnesota to not really know what was coming.

Harden is very good at the type of pass he hit Durant with which is the same pass he signaturely pulls off on the OKC skip pass play between him and Daequan Cook. Westbrook may not have been the right guy to make that pass and was a better decoy threat on the opposite wing playing off the ball.

Brooks did a good job in the overtimes using Harden’s playmaking ability to help win this game. Harden and his passing is going to be a crucial ingredient for any type of playoff run the Thunder can potentially pull off later this year.

This may or may not be common knowledge but I’m here to tell you know that the Oklahoma City Thunder may have the best zone offense in the NBA.

Keys to beating a zone include: good perimeter shooting, ability to penetrate, good ball movement and hitting the offensive glass. The Thunder demonstrated the ability to do all of these against the Suns.

Kevin Durant and James Harden took care of the three-point shooting, Russell Westbrook slashed and dashed through the Suns zone and Serge Ibaka pulled down nine offensive rebounds.

Here are some of the best possessions Oklahoma City had against Phoenix’s zone.

Early in the third quarter the Suns come out in a matchup 2-3 zone. Westbrook advances into the front court then swings it to Daequan Cook on the left wing with Durant in the left corner.

Durant comes up to get the ball at the wing and Ibaka comes over to set a screen on Jared Dudley. Durant uses it and Steve Nash comes over to help and Durant kicks out to Westbrook on the wing. Grant Hill then has to decide now to run out to Westbrook and leave Cook open in the corner.

Hill jabs at Westbrook then retreats and Westbrook immediately penetrates at Marcin Gortat. This is usually where we’d see Westbrook try and take on Gortat and draw a foul and finish at the rim. Westbrook collectedly gets into the paint and sees Ibaka now rolling to the rim.

Westbrook dumps it off to Ibaka who gets a pretty easy dunk. The Thunder made all of the right reads here and moved the ball quickly and efficiently to get the easy dunk.

The next play is at the end of the third quarter with Phoenix again in a 2-3 zone. The Thunder try a set play here with Westbrook bringing it up on the right wing and Durant is looking to set a back pick on the opposite guard for Harden to get a three on the left wing.

Harden catches on the wing but doesn’t have the shot as Dudley helps up for Nash. The Suns zone is already in trouble here and way out of position.

Harden quickly hits Durant at the foul line as Nash and Dudley converge on him. All of the focus then goes to Durant who now has the ball in the middle of the paint.

Durant makes a great read here seeing Ibaka diving on the left block with no one on him. Ibaka finishes quickly and strongly with another dunk.

The final play comes with 4:00 minutes left in the game. Oklahoma City has gone small to close the game and is using Durant around the free throw line to beat the zone. Phoenix is again in 2-3.

Durant comes up to set a pick for Westbrook then flattens out to the right wing. Nash goes with Durant and Westbrook sees the slight opening in the middle of zone and drives hard at Dudley.

Once Westbrook gets into the paint like that it’s all but over for the Suns’ zone. All of the attention goes to him and he makes the easy pass kicking out to Harden in the corner for the three which he drills.

The Thunder, like the Miami Heat, may see a lot of zone once the playoffs start because a lot of teams can’t really match up with them man-to-man. But the Thunder are better put together to beat the zone than the Heat are.

The Thunder’s zone offense may prove to be an integral weapon to their road to the NBA Finals this season.

Last night at home against the Los Angeles Lakers, head coach Scott Brooks called for it after the six-minute time out of the third quarter coming out of commercial. The play works most obviously when the defense isn’t ready and is lulled into a sort of sleep.

The Thunder don’t run a lot of complex sets but do have a couple of quick-hitting plays they can strike with and this may be their best one.

The play begins with Russell Westbrook bringing the ball up on the right side of the floor and immediately passing to the two-guard on the right wing. Durant is in the opposite corner and Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins are near the elbow.

After the pass, Westbrook cuts through the paint and Daequan Cook passes to Perkins on the three-point arc.

Westbrook then comes back up to the left wing from an Ibaka downscreen. The Thunder do this a lot either to then run pick-and-roll with Westbrook on the wing or to set up Durant coming off a downscreen.

On this play when Westbrook gets the pass from Perkins, Ibaka does not set a screen for westbrook and instead spaces the floor to the left corner. The next action the Thunder show is Perkins coming down to set a screen for Durant who is now on the right block. Another key to the play is Westbrook receiving the pass far outside the three-point line so that there is no defender in his face.

Durant acts like he is going to come up off the screen and goes backdoor. The timing between Westbrook and Durant on this play has been on point all season. Defenders often faceguard Durant when he’s working the baseline about to come off screens which makes it easy for him to slip backdoor. His defender is waiting to get hit with a Perkins pick instead of playing Durant straight up.

The scouting report on Oklahoma City is always to basically double Durant coming off screens and this makes defenders play Durant this way when he is running off them. On normal plays this usually opens up shots for Ibaka or Perkins after Durant catches the pass coming off a screen. When Oklahoma City moves their bigs to the perimeter for this play there is absolutely no help for Durant.

After this play is run successfully it helps Durant with the rest of his game coming off screens. His defender now is respecting his back-cut and can’t cheat as much up on him to make it tough for him to come off screens.

They and head coach Scott Brooks have a reputation for not running good offensive sets. While this may be true overall, it doesn’t mean the Thunder don’t have some money plays they use to get easy baskets.

Here is a play the Thunder showed for the first time this season last night against the Golden State Warriors. The Thunder were having their way with Golden State and putting on quite a highlight show in the first half.

With 3:22 left in the first half Russell Westbrook advanced the ball across halfcourt to set up the offense.

It’s a basic play where Kevin Durant and James Harden both cross and come off downscreens on the wing. The Thunder do this a lot for Durant and Harden to either get them looks for open jump shots or in position on the wing to attack the basket.

Serge Ibaka sets the screen for Durant on the left side of the floor and Nazr Mohammed sets the screen for Harden on the right.

Westbrook passes off to Durant whose man, Klay Thompson, is trailing over the screen and Durant curls the screen to get in position to attack the rim. Again this happens a lot for the Thunder when they run Durant off screens. Durant’s defender tries not to go under so that he can take away the jump shot and wait for help on Durant’s catch.

Durant will usually get the jump shot if it is there or look for the screener rolling to the rim if he is doubled or immediately pass back to Westbrook if his man also helps.

On the opposite side of the floor we see Harden fading into the corner instead of up to the wing like he normally would. Also, Mohammed does not stay on the opposite block and instead clears out to the left block near Ibaka.

By this point we know it isn’t a normal play for the Thunder. On the catch Durant is already waiting for Harden to sneak backdoor for the designed lob. Harden’s man, Stephen Curry isn’t in good position and loses sight of Harden here as his body is fully turned toward Durant as he receives the ball.

The timing is right and it’s a highlight for the Thunder as Harden sneaks behind Curry for the pass and finishes strong with his sneaky athleticism.

This is the first time I have seen the Thunder go to this specific lob play. It was a designed play out of a timeout and something that the Thunder staff obviously thought would work.

The Thunder don’t run a ton of stuff so it is easy to get lulled to sleep defending them while expecting to just watch Durant and Westbrook go one-on-one on most possessions. Brooks has done a great job this season taking advantage of this and getting a lob or two every game for Oklahoma City.