The Great OKC Thunder Comeback – 3 Takeaways following OKC’s Houdini act against Brooklyn

Two Game Saving Decisions

I have been on the record taking aim at Billy Donovan and his decision making throughout his tenure as the Thunder coach. While the fourth year coach has had some tremendous coaching moments such as the way Andre Roberson was utilized during the Thunder’s 2016 NBA finals run, he’s also made some awful decisions regarding time management and team strategy.

Donovan made two key decisions yesterday to help guide OKC to a win.

For 45 minutes of the game, Oklahoma City lazily switched everything and Brooklyn’s guard regularly torched Adams, Nerlens Noel and Patrick Patterson from the perimeter. Of the three, Noel was the best at containing a guard, even garnering a steal on one possession but Nets largely got whatever they pleased.

With three minutes remaining in the fourth, the Nets forced a switch of Adams onto Spencer Dinwiddie resulting in an easy straight line dunk.

When I use the word forced, Brooklyn didn’t force anything. The Thunder just gave them the switch without ANY resistance and it was a real problem entering crunch time.

Decision #1 – Shifting Grant to Center

Donovan subbed Adams out for Terrance Ferguson with 2:13 remaining, opting for a long, athletic line-up of Westbrook, Schroder, Ferguson, PG13 and Grant. The move proved to be a stroke of genius as OKC made three straight stops with Brooklyn turning the ball over once in five possessions.

Down by three with less than two minutes remaining, Dinwiddie passes the ball to a cutting Joe Harris. Russ gets his hand up and forces a tough runner off the glass which Harris misses.

Down one with 1:25 to go, Dinwiddie drives on Grant to the cup. Russ and PG converge and Dinwiddie moves the ball to Allen Crabbe. George makes the correct rotation and forces a turnover with Crabbe going out of bounds.

With less than 15 seconds remaining, Donovan makes a smart move by placing Schroder on D’Angelo Russell. The German is too quick for Russell had he driven to the cup thus Schroder baits him into a tough 3-pointer which the 23 year-old front rims.

Decision  #2 – Calling a Time-Out

Following Russell’s miss from 3-point range, Donovan surprisingly called a time-out. For years, the Thunder would allow the Brodie to rush the ball down court and make decisions on the fly. In these situations, the final play would turn into a lucky dip.

However this time, Donovan drew up a beautiful slip-screen play and got PG wide open.

Off an out of bounds pass to Russ, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Dinwiddie attacked the Brodie on defense thinking he was going to attack the paint. George gave a quick slip screen to beyond the arc to get open. When Dinwiddie tried to recover, PG gave a pump fake and watched Dinwiddie fly by.

When asked about it post game, Billy gave an insightful answer with a laugh.