Thunderous Intentions
Fansided

Five takeaways from the Thunder’s easy win against Indiana

By Tony Heim

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - OCTOBER 25: Head Coach Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook #0 of the OKC Thunder talk during a time out during a game against the Indiana Pacers at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on October 25, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - OCTOBER 25: Head Coach Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook #0 of the OKC Thunder talk during a time out during a game against the Indiana Pacers at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on October 25, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – OCTOBER 25: Raymond Felton #2 of the OKC Thunder shoots the ball against the Indiana Pacers on October 25, 2017 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – OCTOBER 25: Raymond Felton #2 of the OKC Thunder shoots the ball against the Indiana Pacers on October 25, 2017 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images) /

When the threes are falling the offense is unstoppable

The Thunder have struggled to shoot the ball to start the season. Through three games they were a combined 32.4% from deep – they only hit over 35% against Minnesota on Sunday. Although it isn’t an earth-shattering number, Oklahoma City’s 10-27 (37%) performance on Wednesday opened up the offense more than we’ve seen all year.

It isn’t important that the Thunder made 37% from deep. It’s important that they took their least amount of attempts of the season on their most efficient night.

Related Story: Recap and player grades from the Wednesday night win

Westbrook and Carmelo, the team’s points leaders through four games, are scorers who can shoot the three but get most of their points inside the arc. It behooves the Thunder to utilize their shooters to space out the opposition’s defense in order to open the paint for Russ, Melo and even Steven Adams to work. That’s what we saw last night.

Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about:

Westbrook could have opted to shoot the open three but instead passed to Adams in the paint for the easy two. Oklahoma City’s offense can’t be based on the three-point shot like the Rockets and Warriors. It has to be focused on getting easy layups like this. When the threes are falling the open pockets on the floor only become larger. The Thunder will never be a top-five shooting team from deep, but they can be a top-three shooting team from the field.

If they can find a way to limit three-point attempts to open shots like last night, you’ll see this offense start to explode.

Home/Thunder News