Preview: OKC Thunder seek third consecutive victory over Warriors

Limit the Warriors amount of assists:

Golden State has recorded 35 or more assists 17 different times this season. That number easily leads the NBA. The Denver Nuggets are second with five such games.

The Warriors are 17-0 when they record 35 or more assists this season. If the Warriors can complete this feat on nine more occasions they will break the record currently held by the  Los Angeles Lakers.

The record was set in the 1986-87 season. The Lakers were a whopping 25-0 that season when they recorded 35 or more assists. The Lakers went on to win the title that season.

In two matchups this season the OKC Thunder held Golden State below 30 assists. Replicating this effort should be the goal since the Dubs are lethal when they record 30 assists, but if they produce 35 teams chances of winning are literally zero.

Next: All-time OKC Top Scorers

Continue building a blueprint without Dre

The Thunder have played the Warriors twice this season. Once with Andre Roberson, once without him. Roberson’s presence was not missed in the last match-up on February 6th.

However, Dre’s presence was felt immensely in the first match-up on November 22nd. Roberson guarded Klay Thompson on 26 possessions Klay attempted only six shots went 0-6 and scored zero points while Roberson guarded him.

In the second match-up Paul George and Josh Huestis did a nice job guarding Thompson in place of the injured Roberson. George or Huestis guarded Thompson for 45 possessions. Holdings Klay to nine points on 4-10 shooting.

The new blueprint isn’t perfect without Dre. That is okay because Thunder head coach Billy Donovan has two games remaining with the Warriors to experiment with different defensive schemes.

*All defender data was provided by NBA.com/Stats new “Box Score Matchups”

Involve Adams for the full 48-minutes

This season for the Thunder Steven Adams has emerged as the third best and on some nights the second best player on the team.

His shot attempts do not correlate with his level of play. Adams has attempted 523 shots this season. Yet, only 73 of Adams shot attempts have occurred in the fourth quarter. Only 193 have occurred in the second half. Those numbers are low, very low.

Adams is an incredibly hard worker, he is also very modest. Don’t expect Adams to demand the ball more or complain about a limited number of shot attempts.

Just because you don’t hear complaints, doesn’t mean Adams is not frustrated. I don’t know if he is or not, this is all hypothetical. But, before Adams becomes frustrated OKC should take advantage of their blossoming big man.

Who boasts the fourth best field goal percentage in the NBA (minimum 200 attempts). With a percentage like that attempting only 13.9% of your shots in the fourth quarter is unacceptable.