Gameday preview: OKC Thunder can claim West’s top seed with win over Wolves

Take advantage of Minnesota’s backcourt:

Even if Derrick Rose dresses he’ll be playing with a sore ankle. With Jeff Teague already out this makes the Wolves susceptible in the backcourt.

Hopefully it will be a better night for Westbrook who had one of his poorest shooting nights in Utah. The combination of Westbrook and Dennis Schroder should have the upper hand against their Wolves counterparts. That said, Rose has looked like his pre injury self reminding fans he was once an MVP.

Attack KAT:

We all recall how great Taj Gibson is and the intangible qualities he brings to the court. However, the man to attack is Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT is an offensive beast who’ll likely put up 20 points and 10 rebounds even if he’s having an off night.  Unlike bigs of his body shape Towns doesn’t have many moves in the post. He’ll telegraph his shot and in spite of his frame, his size is deceiving given he’s not very strong – at least in comparison to Adams.

The big man’s sweet spot is 0-3 feet and he also connects from deep at a 37 percent clip. The ideal spot of the floor to tempt KAT to shoot from is between 10 and 16 feet (31.6%). Moreover, Towns isn’t adept at ball handling or playmaking so If Adams can force KAT to work in that area and the team looks to cut off his passing lanes it should net results for the Thunder.

Jerami Grant will need to manage Taj and the x-factor will be addressing Dario Saric who can do it all. One on one Adams could render KAT ineffective if he makes him work on the defensive side of the floor. Therefore, Russ and Steven should work the pick and roll as much as they can because KAT simply can’t stop it.

Do all the little things:

Notably, the 76ers depth loss was the Wolves gain. Covington is an elite defender who’ll try to stop (or slow) Paul George. Saric can rebound, is an amazing passing big man and is capable of efficiently scoring from virtually inside the paint to the top of the arc. And don’t discount Bayless, I’ve witnessed him (when in Toronto) help lead his team in a fourth quarter comeback from more than 20 points down and he was lights out from deep.

For this reason, it would behoove the Thunder to play to their identity – and use their defense and rebounding to generate scoring. OKC has the definitive defensive advantage. Only Covington and Gibson can be considered elite defenders on Minnesota. Therefore, the Thunder have the goods to take this game if they simply stick to doing all the small things. Bring the effort, force turnovers, cut off passing lanes, crash the glass and diligently defend the perimeter.

One more simple thing the OKC Thunder can do is HIT THEIR FREE THROWS.

Ironically, in the past few games, OKC has been connecting from the perimeter at a much higher rate than they typically average. Minnesota rank 29th at perimeter defense. So, while  I wouldn’t usually condone OKC jacking up treys, if (and only if) the shot is falling as it has through the past three games then the Thunder should take advantage.