The Drive and Dish | Jan. 11, 2024

Giddey on the Gas, Patience in the Paint, Countering Counters and more! 

The Drive and Dish is here to answer the questions that might be going through your head during a Thunder game by providing experienced insight, highlighting aspects of the game you might have missed and pulling you behind the curtain with anecdotes, analysis, and stats.   

Here’s what you need to know as the Thunder finishes up a road-home back-to-back against the Portland Trail Blazers.

In the fifth game in nine nights and final battle of a four-game east coast road swing, the Thunder had a massive challenge on its plate – a feisty Miami Heat team playing in its home gym. Regardless of who is in the lineup for the Heat, Head Coach Erik Spoelstra always has his squad ready to not just compete, but to be dynamic with exotic defenses and evolving tactics throughout the game. 

On Wednesday night, however, it was the Thunder who was able to persevere through a tough first quarter, make adjustments and then simply attack its game plan defensively with more physicality and precision in the second half. After trailing through the first 24 minutes, the Thunder burst out of the third quarter gates with an 11-0 spurt and then again walloped Miami with a 13-0 run to start the fourth quarter. The catalyst in both those occasions was the defense, as OKC’s point of attack coverage was tighter, forcing Miami into contested jump shots instead of drive and kicks. The result was just 33.3 percent shooting from the field for the Heat in the second half and a 128-120 Thunder road victory. 

On offense, the Thunder stayed relentless with its movement and passing regardless of whether Miami was switching, in coverage or playing a funky zone. For a few minutes that amoeba-like defensive pressure bogged down the Thunder’s offense, but it wasn’t long before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was dishing to Chet Holmgren for three or Jalen Williams was slicing through the lane and dishing one of his career-high 12 assists. For the game the Thunder shot 59 percent from the field, continuing the team’s best 10-game shooting stretch in OKC history.

In a bounce back win on Monday in Washington, D.C. the Thunder played with the type of energy and effort that has been a hallmark for the team all year. The concentration to sustain that kind of effort for 48 minutes was outstanding, as the Wizards kept clawing back from every lead the Thunder gained. 

A huge benefit of deep concentration on every possession is the ability to stay patient and not just rush into the first shot or opportunity you get to attack. In the first quarter as the Thunder was trying to break away, Isaiah Joe was out on the move in transition and could have tried to force a fast break layup. Instead, he kept his “Nash” dribble alive on a baseline drive underneath the rim and waited for reinforcements. 

In this case it was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander streaking in from behind the play for an easy layup while the defense tried to swivel back around. That type of patience is why Joe is shooting a team-best 83 percent at the rim this season. As Mark Daigneault says, if a guy is shooting that efficiently it’s a sign of the shots they’re deciding not to take.  

That concentration also means being able to play deep into the shot clock without panicking and in a critical stage of the fourth quarter that’s exactly what Chet Holmgren did. After the Thunder’s initial action out top didn’t result in anything productive, the ball swung around the perimeter and into the post to Holmgren, a spot he hasn’t been in too often this season. With his vision and passing prowess, however, Holmgren wasn’t rushed when he caught the ball with six seconds on the shot clock. He simply waited for the Thunder’s wings to move off the ball into open passing windows, finding Joe for a big time catch-and-shoot 3. 

While being prudent has its place, the Thunder’s typical game plan is to be as fast as possible inside the action to give the opposition no time to recover and get set again. Any advantage where the defense is chasing the ball is a good one for OKC. That’s especially true when you’re trying to claw back from a 32-point deficit like the Thunder was on Friday up in Brooklyn as OKC made a dramatic charge in the second half to pull within eight points with 2:52 remaining. 

Part of the reason it was able to do so was quick decision-making and instant attacks to the rim like the one Josh Giddey made inside the final five minutes of regulation. After a Gilgeous-Alexander miss, the second chance was kicked out to Giddey in the corner. Instead of pulling the ball out and setting up a new play, Giddey made a quick pass fake and immediately re-drove the ball with force down the baseline for a physical layup. Those types of plays have helped Josh shoot 50 percent or better from the field in 10 of his last 12 games. 

By the way, keep an eye out on Thursday back in OKC, where Josh needs just seven-made field goals for 1,000 in his career. 

All season long the Thunder is going to face defenses who have prepared for their guard-to-guard screens, their off-ball action and attempts to get layups via the cut. It’s a critical skill for this group to hone the counters to their opposition’s counters throughout the year and there was a clear-cut example of exactly that against the Wizards. In the early stages of the second quarter, Jalen Williams set a back screen on Wizards guard Delon Wright, who was guarding Thunder rookie Cason Wallace. 

Instead of chasing him through the screen, Wright and his teammate Deni Avdija simply switched the action to not give up anything easy at the rim. Williams recognized the switch, however, and immediately bounced off of Wright, who was still above JDub on the floor, instead of between him and the basket. That quick read and Wallace continuing to clear Avdija out to the corner was all JDub needed to get that wide open layup the Wizards were dead set on preventing. 

The Thunder is just 35 games into the season, less than 45 percent of the way through the NBA calendar, yet rookie Cason Wallace has already been deployed in dozens of different ways as the team continues testing the boundaries of his game. What’s impressive is that those 35 games are three more than Wallace played all last year at the University of Kentucky, yet the number 10 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft has taken it all in stride and brought a high level of tenacity to his job each night. 

While Thunder fans have seen Wallace as a screener, a roller and playing like a big man out of the dunker spot, a first quarter play in Atlanta against the Hawks made him look like the spitting image of mobile centers we see all around the league. Wallace set up just underneath the three-point line and caught the ball like he was posting up. 

Wallace waited there for Joe to rush in front of him and pretended to hand the ball off, which froze Hawks guard Trae Young just long enough to give him room to turn the corner and explode to the rim for a dunk. It’s usually big men who use those dummy hand offs to create driving angles, but Wallace has shown no matter his size he can play in any action. 

After eight days in 4\four cities on the east coast road trip, the Thunder will get two games in three days at home in Oklahoma City before shipping back out, this time to the west coast. After the Portland game and another on Saturday against the Magic, the Thunder hits the road for a back-to-back in Los Angeles, first against the Lakers and then against the Clippers. All of those matchups will test the Thunder’s ability to handle size, physicality and wing scoring. 

Thursday night’s game against the Trail Blazers at Paycom Center starts at 7:00 p.m. CT, as does Saturday’s game against Orlando. Be sure to tune in on Bally Sports Oklahoma, follow along on our @okcthunder social accounts and stay here on the Thunder App or okcthunder.com.