Recapping the Thunder’s 102-74 Win Over Orlando
By CHRIS SILVA | THUNDER.NBA.COM
Nov 8 2009 10:46PM
Thunder head coach Scott Brooks’ opening statement summed up his team’s 102-74 victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday: “That was about as good as we could possibly play.”
And it didn’t really matter that the defending Eastern Conference champion Magic were without forwards Rashard Lewis (suspension) and Ryan Anderson (ankle) and guard Vince Carter (ankle). In fact, before the game Brooks said that pointing out that an opponent is undermanned is an “overrated” line of thinking. The Magic still had plenty of role players, guys who could step in and fill up the stat sheet, guys who at one point had a six-point lead on the Thunder.
“A win is a win,” Jeff Green said. “Today we came out with a strategy of them not making three-point shots but when we play them again it’s going to have to be a different strategy, because they’re going to be a different team. We’ll just have to be prepared.”
Brooks said this was the best ball movement he’d seen all season – 27 assists on 40 baskets, and that obviously doesn’t include all the extra passes that were made. He was so pleased with the ball movement that he showed clips of good passing possessions to the team at halftime. Brooks said the Thunder was making “rhythm passes” – “swing, swing and a shot,” he said – and that OKC did that 12 to 15 times against Orlando. It helped the Thunder to a 57.1% shooting night and 9-for-16 from behind the arc.
“It feeds off of everybody,” rookie James Harden said. “Everybody made some great decisions tonight. Everybody played well and shared the ball well.”
Some of that can be attributed to the different lineups the Thunder had on the floor. Oftentimes, there were two or three ballhandlers on the floor who were looking to make the extra pass. There were times when James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha were on the floor together. Another lineup featured Shaun Livingston, Kevin Ollie, Harden, Green and Etan Thomas. Another one had Livingston, Harden, Sefolosha, Kevin Durant and Thomas. All of those combinations allowed the Thunder to spread the floor and move the ball.
How about Nenad Krstic? The Serbian center goes 4-for-5 from the field in the first quarter, dislocates the pinky finger on his left hand, gets it fixed and returns to score six more points, finishing with 14 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Being that he’s such a spot-on shooter, the Magic had to respect that. And that meant Dwight Howard having to leave the cozy confines of the paint to challenge Krstic’s shot.
“Nenad can keep him on the defensive end and come out and space the floor out and he shot the ball well,” Brooks said. “We were doing a great job of finding him and setting screens for him.”
Contact Chris Silva
|
-
-
| Team | W | L | GB |
| Thunder |
22 |
6 |
0.0 |
| Nuggets |
17 |
12 |
5.5 |
| Trail Blazers |
15 |
14 |
7.5 |
| Jazz |
14 |
14 |
8.0 |
| Timberwolves |
13 |
16 |
9.5 |
|
