Views from OKC: Thunder have found their secret weapon

Views from OKC is a daily diary about the current state of the OKC Thunder. Today we look at the Billy Donovan’s best kept secret.

Good news Thunder Nation. Oklahoma City laid their normal “dud against a bad team” last night but still came out with a win. That’s mostly because of a superstar by the name of Russell Westbrook.

We all know by now what Russ did at the end of the game; I don’t want to beat a dead horse.

Credit must go to an amazing defensive effort in the last 3:30 minutes of the game. Dallas went scoreless in that time, missing six field goals and turning the ball over two times. Naturally Andre Roberson’s defense on Harrison Barnes was key – the ex-Warrior missed all three of his attempts – but it was the overall team effort that saved Oklahoma City. That includes Billy Donovan.

Donovan made a genius move by playing Jerami Grant in crunch time last night. Nobody would have guessed playing a 6’9 athletic freak at stretch four could disrupt an offense, but that’s exactly what happened last night.

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Grant played alongside Taj Gibson to finally create the small-ball lineup that can handle the NBA’s newest trend. All season Billy D’s squad has been roasted by stretch fours; Domantas Sabonis and Enes Kanter simply can’t keep up on the perimeter. By playing Grant it allowed the Thunder to switch everyone besides Roberson, effectively stopping any sort of separation for the Mavericks.

Watch what happens when Gibson and Victor Oladipo switch on the JJ Barea /Dirk Nowitzki pick & pop.

Instead of Nowitzki’s screen creating space for Barea to penetrate and kick to an open shooter, Gibson disrupts the Mavericks set play by switching. Barea and the rest of the Mavericks were obviously not prepared for that to happen, forcing their usual backup point guard to take a contested deep three.

Now look what happens when Steven Adams merely helps while he waits for Oladipo to fight through the screen.

By leaving his man to help on Yogi Ferrell, Adams creates a wide open lane for Dallas big Salah Mejri. Roberson is forced to help off Barnes leading to the wide-open jumper. This isn’t necessarily Adams’ fault though; the Big Kiwi isn’t quick enough to guard Ferrell in isolation.

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The easiest way to guard a screen, either on-ball or off-ball, is to simply switch defenders. That’s not as easy as it sounds though. Teams have to be able to throw out five players who can take on someone as quick as a point guard and as strong as a center. This Westbrook-Oladipo-Roberson-Grant-Gibson is the only Oklahoma City combination that fits that criteria.

Strangely enough Donovan hasn’t used this lineup much since Gibson’s acquisition. In fact it’s not even listed on NBA.com or Basketball Reference as a five-man lineup the Thunder have used.

Donovan knows what he has in this group of players, but he doesn’t want to show his hand before the playoffs. It’s genius. Don’t be surprised if this lineup only makes a couple more crunch time appearances this season; they have all the practice time in the world to learn chemistry.

The less Billy D makes this lineup known, the better off the Thunder will be in the playoffs.