Since December 6, the Thunder had won nine out of 10 games prior to its Christmas Day clash against the Chicago Bulls, when it fell 105-96. So on Saturday when the team met at the INTEGRIS Thunder Development Center, there was some perspective to reflect upon when getting back to work.
Rather than overreact to a winning streak or to a tough loss, the Thunder simply looked at its recent performances, diagnosed some areas of concern and addressed them during its practice session. With the second of four-straight home games coming up on Sunday evening against the Denver Nuggets, the Thunder knows it has an opportunity to rack up some more wins this upcoming week if it plays the right way.
“We tried to clean up and get better on some things defensively and went over some offensive concepts,” Head Coach Billy Donovan said. “This morning was pretty spirited. We got good work in for an hour and we’ll get prepared and ready to play tomorrow.”
The Thunder didn’t quite have its normal verve or pace on early Friday afternoon, but in Donovan’s mind, there are ways to counteract fatigue, a lack of rhythm or a poor shooting game. By each individual being locked into their task on every possession, the Thunder can give itself a chance to be successful even if the game doesn’t look pretty.
“There are other things you can do to offset and compensate for that,” Donovan said of being a step slow. “It’s the ability to concentrate, be focused and be detailed. What you have to do is challenge yourself mentally, from a discipline standpoint to maybe find areas you can take advantage.”
An understanding of personnel and opposing schemes is one thing, but it’s also having the restraint to not give in to impulses to cut corners in the game. Switching on defense when it isn’t necessary, not boxing out and running offensive sets in an undeliberate manner can all cause flaws in a possession that deny any chance of either scoring a basket or getting a stop.
For the Thunder, it’s those little things that add up over the course of 48 minutes that must be remembered and prioritized.
“It’s a habit of consistency of not doing things that inevitably can get you beat,” Donovan explained. “Offensive rebounding, fouling too much, jumping through the air on a pump fake. Those things we have control over, it’s really trying to get more consistent on them.”
“It’s not these major things. It’s the consistency, the concentration and the focus that we need to do,” he concluded.