OKC Thunder zoned out in loss to Heat: 3 takeaways

Preparation lacking:

Okay – I get that playing against a zone is different than practicing for it. And much like the box and one the two-three zone isn’t something most teams employ. At the same time, it felt like the Thunder seemed surprised by Miami’s zone. Quite frankly, that’s shocking.

They used it for three quarters against Toronto recently but that was because 70 percent of the Raptors offense were wearing suits instead of jerseys. They used it to great effect against the Spurs. And, any team who isn’t adept from the perimeter or are short-handed also gets heavy doses of it.

There are countermeasures. As per above the obvious is to hit a few threes and force the Heat to abandon clogging the paint and inviting the outside shot. Taking 46 perimeter attempts, however, isn’t the identity of the Thunder – nor should it be!

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Rebounding is another key to tackling the zone because it allows teams to get out on fast breaks in transition (the Thunder lost the rebounding edge 45 to 35).

And while you can’t just run into players drawing offensive fouls you can be active with cuts and drives but that all begins and ends with ball and player movement which was absent until far too late.

Although the players have to do these things this falls on the coaching staff for not having the club better prepared. Sure, the Heat are an elite team but tonight’s win was only their 11th win on the road drawing them even at 11-11.

Miami is still a primarily young club that doesn’t perform as well away from home. Ultimately, not doing the fundamental things like rebounding and moving (particularly player movement) played right into Miami’s hands.

That said, I’ll reiterate, there is no shame in losing to the second (Lakers), fourth (Heat) and eighth (Raptors) ranked teams in the Association.

Fortunately, the next opponent is the Blazers who aren’t a top defensive squad (24th ranked) and CJ McCollum suffered a bad ankle sprain Friday so they’ll be functioning short handed.

Let’s hope OKC learned their lesson versus the undermanned Lakers and from these recent losses and come out aggressive from the tip.