There’s more than a fifth of the season remaining for the Thunder. Plenty of time for work and improvement.
With that remaining time the team will look to find the best possible strategies, play calls, player combinations, lineups and rotations to be successful on the floor. Besides precious game time, it’s essential for Head Coach Scott Brooks and his staff to use the opportunities to get on the practice court at the INTEGRIS Thunder Development Center to their advantage in making these determinations.
After a tough loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night, the Thunder got back to work on Thursday to test out what is working and what isn’t in order to get a win on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“The things that we do in practice, we make sure it works and has success there before we put it on the court at night,” Brooks continued. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s the best combinations of a lot of our players right now. There are some moving parts.”
One such example of a lineup that the Thunder is testing out is the one that was on display for the first time on Wednesday at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder went extra big on the interior, playing both of its centers – Steven Adams and Enes Kanter – at the same time. While there were positives and negatives with that combination, it is something that the Thunder hopes to work on, refine and analyze to see if it will work moving forward, just as it does with other aspects of its gameplan.
“That was the first time we were able to do it in the game,” Brooks said. “That’s something we’re going to look at. They’re both very good players. It’s going to continue to be an ongoing experience to see which matchups work.”
In general, the Thunder knows that aside from the strategic decisions that it has to make, there are two things above all that will help the Thunder get back on the right track moving forward – effort and execution. That’s true particularly on the defensive end, where the Thunder knows that it must force teams to shoot difficult, contested shots as opposed to the ones designed in the flow of their offense.
Preventing straight-line drives to the basket, catch-and-shoot three-point attempts and fast break opportunities is critical to success on defense. Denying those opportunities comes down to energy and focus.
“There’s a big difference whether we’re giving them shots to make or are we putting ourselves in a position to miss shots,” Brooks explained.
On the other end of the floor, the Thunder knows that good offense that produces a high-percentage shot on each trip down is the key to preventing live ball turnovers and long rebounds that result in opposing transition chances. Brooks’ club had too many turnovers on Wednesday night, and moving forward it knows that creating driving lanes in the defense by spacing, moving the ball and cutting hard is the recipe to success. The Thunder has had one of the best offenses in the league for years, but keeping it sharp takes discipline and attention to detail.
“We have to continue to move the defense,” Brooks said. “Our team is built on scoring off of our defense. They go hand in hand- the offense and the defense. We have to do a better job of moving the basketball when they clog the paint.”