One play might sum up how far gone Terrance Ferguson’s offense is. It was around 5:30ish in the third quarter and Lu Dort was on a break away from a steal with Marcus Smart chasing him down. With no one else to contest the shot and Smart bothering Dort instead of going up to slam the ball he swiped at it and it was a missed opportunity.
The offense has been a question mark for a while but what has to be concerning is TFerg used to be a lockdown defender and this game highlighted regression there as well. Early on he was the primary defender on Gordon Hayward who got pretty much whatever he wanted.
In contrast near the end of the third Dort took over and shut him down leading to a steal. It was the type of defense we were used to seeing from Ferguson. It makes you wonder if this is a confidence situation or heaven forbid – effort.
If not for Danilo Gallinari in the first half to help CP3 with the offense it felt like this game could’ve been blown out early. He collected 13 points in the first half and with Paul’s 10 that accounted for almost half of the Thunder scoring.
In the second half, the Celtics adjusted and it resulted in everything being contested. He finished with 18 points and six rebounds. Donovan also adjusted and had Gallo defend Hayward a few times to put length on him and he did a decent job with the assignment.
Some of the screens Steven Adams set today are the stuff legends are made of. It would be nice to see him get more touches – through three quarters he had one field goal attempt — ONE. Daniel Theis is good but there was an opportunity to go inside more to the Big Kiwi and with the team missing Shai’s offense it might’ve helped the team get some easy baskets.
Missing both free throws at the game end wasn’t ideal but he avoids getting slammed for it based on the crazy finish.
His numbers don’t demonstrate how much he did (six points, six rebounds) other than the three steals and block which do reflect his presence defensively.