In late November the Thunder stands at 12-7 as it approaches the quarter mark of the 2018-19 campaign. Conventional wisdom states that a team’s identity comes into shape by around the 20-game mark, which for the Thunder will come this Wednesday, Nov. 28 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Through the first month and a half of the year, here’s where the Thunder ranks amongst the rest of the NBA. All stats per 48 minutes unless denoted otherwise.
Overall:
- 4th best point differential (+5.4)
- 5th in net rating (+4.7 point differential per 100 possessions)
- 7th in pace (105.04 possessions per game)
Offense:
- 1st in field goal attempts (93.8).
- 1st in offensive rebounds (13.6),
- 1st in offensive rebound percentage (28.6%)
- 1st in second chance points (17.5)
- 2nd most shot attempts per game in the restricted area (35.6)
- 4th in turnover percentage (13.3%)
- 5th most fouls drawn (23.9)
- 6th in fast break points (15.5)
- 6th in fewest points off turnovers allowed (15.4)
- 7th fewest turnovers (14.1)
- 7th in points in the paint (51.8)
“We’re trying to get there,” said Head Coach Billy Donovan about attacking the restricted area and deep paint. “There’s a lot more possessions and the harder you are to guard, the more ball movement there is, the more penetration there is, the more rotations there is, the more it becomes impactful on the other team’s defense and fatigue and those kind of things.”
Defense:
- 1st in defensive rating (100.6 points allowed per 100 possessions)
- 1st in steals (10.6)
- 1st in turnovers forced (17.9)
- 1st in points off turnovers (21.6)
- 3rd in rebounding (48.5)
- 3rd lowest three-point percentage allowed (32.3%)
- 4th fewest three-point makes allowed (9.6)
- 4th in overall rebounding percentage (52.4%)
- 5th in points allowed per 48 minutes (105.5)
“It’s the scout that goes into play, what the game plan is and then just making adjustments on the fly. And that’s probably like 60 percent of it, I’d say,” said center Steven Adams of the Thunder’s top defensive rating. “The rest of the 40 percent is you get the talented defenders, like (Paul George), the ones that just make amazing defensive plays that actually save us possessions. That other part is just coming down to the individual.”
Individual Players:
- Paul George is 15th in the NBA in scoring average (24.0 points) while averaging 8.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.3 steals (1st in the NBA), and 4th in three-pointers taken (9.3) and made (3.3) per game
- Russell Westbrook is 17th in scoring average (23.2 points), 2nd in assists (9.3) and 6th in steals (2.09) while also averaging 9.5 rebounds per game
- Steven Adams is averaging 15.5 points, 10.5 rebounds (16th in the NBA) and is shooting 59.3 percent.
- Dennis Schröder is averaging 17.3 points, 5.2 assists, shooting 36.3 percent from three
- Jerami Grant is averaging 11.6 points, shooting 49.1 percent, 36.8 percent from three
- Hamidou Diallo is averaging 6.3 points on 47.0 percent shooting
- Nerlens Noel is averaging 5.0 points on 61.7 percent shooting
“The more players that you have that can facilitate and create penetration and the ability to put the ball on the floor and break people down off the dribble, you’re going to be much more effective offensively if you’re doing that,” said Donovan. “It’s about them all playing together and existing together and utilizing their strengths together.”