Five takeaways from the Thunder’s easy win against Indiana
By Tony Heim
Their biggest weaknesses’ are being addressed
Oklahoma City had two major deficiencies in their first three games: rebounding and consistently getting good, open looks. We addressed the latter with Takeaway #1 and #2 – let Russell Westbrook run an offense that focuses on getting to the rim. The Thunder got easy shots all night (granted it was against a terrible Indiana defense) by doing just that. Takeaway #4 addresses the former.
The Thunder have prided themselves on their ability to clean the glass since coming to OKC. We knew letting Enes Kanter go would hurt the NBA’s best rebounding team last season, not enough to push them out of the top 25 though. But that’s exactly what happened.
Through Sunday the Thunder were 27th in rebounding as detailed by FiveThirtyEight. On Wednesday, however, they dominated Indiana on the boards. A quick look at the box score says Carmelo Anthony and his ten rebounds was the main reason for this – that doesn’t give Billy Donovan the credit he deserves.
Donovan slightly changed his defensive schemes so that Oklahoma City switched less than normal. This allowed his “bigs” – Carmelo and Jerami Grant – to stay in the paint instead of moving out to the perimeter to defend a guard. Both recorded season highs with 10 and 7 respectively. Some of that had to do with a Pacer team without a bona fide star, but it was obvious winning the rebounding battle was a point of emphasis.
There’s no reason for Oklahoma City to fall out of the top 15, let alone the top 10. It’s going to take an increased effort from Carmelo, Grant and the other small forwards-turned power forwards to change their game. The good news is they know it’s a concern and they are already working to fix it.