OKC Thunder routed by desperate Grizzlies- 3 takeaways
OKC Thunder miss Schroder and Adams:
The common sentiment of ‘next man up’ was utilized as the Thunder were without the services of Dennis Schroder again. For this match, however, OKC was also missing Steven Adams who the team elected to rest after that brutal and awkward fall in the Lakers match.
Mike Muscala was also out limiting the options upfront.
In the current era of basketball may teams use smaller players at center. Take a look at the Rockets for example who employ 6’5″ P.J. Tucker as their center. Although the Grizzlies were missing their best big man with Jaren Jackson Jr. suffering a torn meniscus their depth upfront is solid.
That includes Jonas Valanciunas who is a perfect matchup for Steven Adams. Both are throwbacks to the old style center. Strong guys who love to get at it under the basket and use their sheer strength.
On top of JV, the Grizzlies also have the talented rookie Brandon Clarke — yet another Canadian who is making a mark in the NBA, Anthony Tolliver, and Kyle Anderson.
JV was unstoppable with the slimmer Nerlens Noel not being able to defend someone of that size and skill. The Lithuanian posted a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds in an efficient 24 minutes. Clarke added 12 points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes.
And, while Anthony Tolliver didn’t put up ridiculous numbers his presence and ability to hit the three provided great spacing for the Grizzlies. Tolliver dropped eight points and grabbed five rebounds while Anderson added seven points and three rebounds.
In contrast, the Thunder countered with Noel who scored 11 with four rebounds, Danilo Gallinari scored 12 and grabbed a single rebound, Darius Bazley scored 12 with four rebounds and Kevin Hervey scored two points with two rebounds.
The cumulative difference was 46 points versus 37 for Memphis. But the real problem was the glass with Grizzlies big men grabbing 27 rebounds compared to 11 for the Thunder.
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We’ve touched on how this affected the paint scoring above. And, we’ve noted in the loss to the Nuggets how the absence of Schroder impacted the team.
For those who’ve wondered why I repeatedly point to the Raptors winning so much in spite of all the injuries, these Thunder games are proving my point. For most of the season, the Raptors had one of their top seven players out injured often two or three at a time. No seeded team who arrived in Orlando suffered more man-games lost due to injury than Toronto. Only the Blazers (who were not a playoff seed arriving in Orlando) had more — and look at their record.
Moving forward, it’s likely Schroder won’t be available for the remaining seeded games since he’ll need to quarantine upon return. Neither Donovan nor the franchise has provided any indication on when that return date will be. Let’s hope it won’t play a factor.
More important, is whether Adams will be able to go on Sunday versus the Wizards and if he’ll be able to go in a back-to-back (and also play on Monday). This could be a huge factor since the Thunder needs to avoid that sixth seed if at all possible.