Broadcast Information
- Tip-off: 8:00 p.m. CT
- Television: Fox Sports Oklahoma
- Radio: WWLS the Sports Animal and the Thunder Radio Network
PHOENIX – The ball is coming out of the net quickly, it’s flying up the floor and the Thunder is flowing into offense often with 18 seconds still remaining on the shot clock. Plenty of time to get a good look.
The first part of playing faster, as the Thunder set out to do heading into the season, is actually playing with more speed. But lately, during this stretch of 9 wins in 10 games for the Thunder, the team has also been thinking the game more quickly, and for longer stretches. The Thunder’s concentration and attention to detail is pivotal in reacting to pick-and-roll coverages, getting matched up in transition and every little aspect of the game where inches can be won. Throughout this season, the Thunder wants to keep making strides in that department and that continues on the road against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.
“Our guys have been concentrating very, very well on both ends of the floor. The attention to detail has been really good and in trying to keep ‘the main things the main things’,” said Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan. “One thing that’s been encouraging is that on the bench there’s a lot of really good communication when there are breakdowns of how to try to solve it.”
“It’s thinking fast where stuff is very instinctual. That’s where I’d like to see the team go,” added center Steven Adams. “Once you get to that level and you expand and get some stamina behind it, it’s very good on our end. We end up scoring easier, playing defense a lot faster, rhythm goes up. It’s very hard on them, because the windows of opportunity they have are very small, so they have to make quite amazing pinpoint passes to come to an advantage.”
One of the major beneficiaries of the Thunder’s up-tempo, free-flowing, quick-thinking style has been Paul George, who over the last two games has shot 24-of-41 (58.5 percent), including 11-for-21 (52.3 percent) from three-point range for a combined 67 points (32 on Monday against the Suns, 35 on Wednesday against the Knicks). It hasn’t just been the jump shots coming off of curls at the top of the key, baseline cuts, pin downs at the elbow or dribble hand-offs from Adams. George has been making plays for his teammates, racking up 11 assists in the Thunder’s two most recent wins.
“(George) is putting himself in good spots and he’s playing the game the right way as he always does,” said Donovan. “He scores in flurries where he can kind of get on a run – a 6, 8, 9-0 run for himself where he can just ring off points. But he never really hunts shots.”
“You want to put him in situations with space and then allow his talent, his view for the game and his vision for the game to kind of come through and then he can kind of get into a rhythm and a flow and can kind of play the game,” Donovan added.
George has averaged 27.5 points on 58.8 percent field goal shooting and 55.6 percent three-point shooting to go with 5.5 assists in the Thunder’s two previous matchups against the Suns this year, so if recent history is any indicator, he’ll have a good shot at keeping this hot streak alive out in the desert.
In order to come away with another precious Western Conference victory however, the Thunder will have to be just as lights out on the defensive end. It’s tough to beat the same team multiple times in a row in the same season, let alone three times in the first 15 games of the season.
“Whatever has happened the last two times that we played them is just that. It has nothing to do with today,” said Donovan. “We’re going to have be able to, on the road, do a really good job of defending the three, we gotta defend the deep paint and we gotta keep them off the free throw line.”
Watch: Practice Report - Nov. 16</strong
While Phoenix’s wings like TJ Warren and Jamal Crawford are sharpshooters in their own right and rookie Deandre Ayton has shown flashes down low, the Thunder’s top assignment on Saturday is Devin Booker, the Suns dynamic guard who is averaging 23.3 points and 6.9 assists this year. The Thunder needs to extend Booker’s catches as far out onto the perimeter as possible, but also be wary of any adjustments Phoenix may make.
“It’s just contesting all the shots, honestly. (Booker) is a very good player, very good shooter. Just containing him, especially off pick-and-rolls and stuff,” said Adams. “It’s just being physical with them always, within reason.”
“They run some good offense and they have some really tough scorers on their team,” rookie Hamidou Diallo said of the Suns, “So we have to come out with the same energy that we have been coming out (with) and just be the more physical and just be the more aggressive team and come out and take care of business like we have been doing.”
Saturday’s game is yet another chance for the Thunder to take a stride forward in its level of focus and execution and building the stamina to be able to persevere through any fatigue or adversity that occurs. Even for rookies like Diallo, there seems to be a pervasive mentality etched into each Thunder player’s approach to the season.
“We’re trying to get better each and every day, just trying to put a penny in the jar every day,” said Diallo. “Each game we watch film and there’s things that we’re not doing right. So we’ve got to fix it, we’ve got to come to practice, and keep doing it until we get it right.”
Shootaround Notes
- Alex Abrines did not practice on Friday or participate at shootaround on Saturday due to an illness that knocked him out of the second half of the Thunder’s win over the New York Knicks. Abrines’ status for Phoenix is uncertain but he did make the road trip with the team. Terrance Ferguson will be out while dealing with a personal matter. The team will announce the starting lineup before tip-off.
- “We’ll have to utilize some different guys in some different spots,” said Donovan. “It’s an opportunity for some guys to step up and help.”
- “We’ll see how the game goes and how guys perform and play with opportunities that will be presented to guys,” Donovan continued. “Every competitive game and challenge has it’s own unique life of its own.”
- One player who has gotten some opportunities recently is two-way player Deonte Burton, a bruising perimeter player who Donovan envisions as a small ball power forward or at times a small forward or even shooting guard. With his size, physicality and skill level, Burton projects as a lefty wing who can switch one through four on the perimeter, and that’s how he’s been utilized in the G League with the Oklahoma City Blue where he’s averaged 15.2 points, 4.2 reboounds, 3.2 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
- “(Burton) is really eager to grow, develop and learn. He has a strong appetite to want to get better. Improving is important to him. He’s competitive and he wants to win,” Donovan said. “Deonte can maybe provide that kind of flexibility for us as he continues to grow out.”
News & Notes
- Russell Westbrook participated in practice on Friday and shootaround on Saturday, during which the Thunder did some contact work. His status will also be determined pregame on Saturday. Regardless of whether Westbrook is in the starting lineup or not, Dennis Schröder will need to be a playmaker and creator for this Thunder squad. Against New York he had his 4th career game with 12-or-more assists.
- “(Schröder) is doing a much, much better job of understanding the shots to take for himself in pick and roll and the shots to stay away from and then the ability to say, ‘okay if the shot I’m trying to get off is not available, there’s obviously something else open’,” explained Donovan. “He’s done a nice job of finding guys in those situations.”
- “He’s one of those dudes who is very good at understanding who he is playing with,” said Adams of the Thunder point guard. “He understands their strengths and tries to help them get the feel, the rhythm, trying to get them involved.”
- In the month of November, Jerami Grant has shot 11-of-24 from three-point range, good for 45.8 percent after shooting just 21.1 percent in the month of October. During these past 8 games, Grant has gotten more high-percentage looks near the basket early in the game and settled into the corner for catch-and-shoot jumpers. Playing to his strengths has helped his efficiency rise.
- “(Grant) has found ways to get down into the corners, below the break,” said Donovan. “Him working his way down in those areas inside of our offense is good because we’re finding him and we’re getting him good looks from the three-point line.”
- While rookie Hamidou Diallo hasn’t shot it particularly well from behind the arc, the Thunder guard knows that there are other things he can do within the offense to still put pressure on the opposition. The Suns, like many other teams lately, will likely back off of Diallo on the perimeter, and it’ll be up to the former Kentucky Wildcat to still find driving lanes or to probe the defense enough to create a play. In practice, Diallo will keep working on his jumper, which Donovan believes will round into form eventually because of the youngster’s work ethic, mechanics and technique.
- “There’s different actions that we can run with people that’s going to try to go under on me, but I just try to take what the defense is giving me for the most part and make reads off of it,” said Diallo, who scored 9 on Monday, 11 on Wednesday respectively and is averaging 6 per game this season.
- “The more (Diallo) sees different defenses and different things, the more and more he’ll get comfortable with it,” said Donovan. “He’s going to be a good shooter. I don’t think there’s any question about that.”