‘Keep Chipping Away’, Thunder Eyes Series Lead in Game 5

Date: August 29, 2020

Tip-Off Time: 5:30 p.m. CT

Television: Fox Sports Oklahoma

Radio: 98.1 FM WWLS the Sports Animal and the Thunder Radio Network

Series: 2-2

After digging itself into an early 0-2 hole in the series, the Thunder fought and willed itself back onto even playing field with a pair of back-to-back, hard-won victories – one decided in overtime and the other most recently decided in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.

In each win, the Thunder weathered the storm of Houston’s volatile offensive surges. On Monday, for example, OKC withstood a barrage of made buckets from Houston right out of the gates of halftime. Eight consecutive made 3-pointers took a tied ball game and immediately switched it in favor of a 15-point Rockets’ lead midway through the third quarter.

Poised, calm, and collected, the Thunder, led by the primary ball handler duo of Dennis Schröder and Chris Paul, waited out the flash in the pan of Houston’s offense and stayed the course, disciplined to their game plan and their identity. The result was a 12-0 run to close the half that was capped off with a poetic 3-point buzzer beater from Schröder with an assist from Paul to bring the game back to one point going into the fourth quarter.

By the end of the night, Schröder finished with 30 points and Paul with 26. The two led the charge of the Thunder’s pace of play for 48 minutes. It took a couple of games to settle into an offensive rhythm against Houston’s strange, unorthodox defense, but there’s a trend amongst the Thunder’s success against it: pace and tempo on offense and a stamina to weather the storm.

“We have a great team, we’ve been showing it all year,” said Schröder in his walk-off interview with Nick Gallo on FOX Sports Oklahoma. “We’re just going to stay humble in victory and keep chipping away. Game 5 is going to be a big one and we just gotta come out ready.”

Despite getting out to a hot start offensively, and again to begin the third quarter in Game 4, the Rocket’s offense dried up midway through the third. After an incredible 8-for-8 from behind the arc in the first six minutes of the third quarter, they went 5-of-26 for the remaining 18 minutes of the game, including a last-second heave by Danuel House Jr. at the buzzer from 54-feet away from the rim that went in, but made no impact on the game’s outcome.

For the game, the Rockets shot 23-of-58 from the 3-point line which marks several statistical milestones. Twenty-three makes is the most by the Rockets this season in a loss and the most in a postseason loss in NBA history.

Trading 3-pointers for 2’s is the style and math equation that Houston has made a living on all season long. For the Thunder, their counter strategy isn’t to match the Rockets point-for-point on their scoring outbursts, but stay diligent to its identity and generate good, quality shots in each possession.

Chris Paul exemplified this in the third quarter of Game 3 in the midst of Houston’s barrage of 3-pointers. Nearly every triple by Houston was answered quickly by Paul on the other end of the floor with a patented mid-range jumper to mitigate the potential for a back-breaking lead too large to overcome.

“Chris, I think in a lot of ways is calming force for our guys in terms of getting the game settled and making sure we can have a good next possession and get a good shot off,” said Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan. “It just so happened he got it going there, made a couple really good plays and kind of weathered the storm for us.”

Going into Game 5, the Thunder will look to carryover that same discipline and composure as the Rockets make adjustments and throw their best punch to regain a series lead.

For the past two games, the Thunder’s Sixth Man of the Year contender, Dennis Schröder has come off of the bench and injected much-needed energy into the Thunder’s offense. After a slow start in Games 1 and 2, Schröder has averaged 29.5 points on 51.3 percent shooting from the field in Games 3 and 4. Pushing the ball in transition, initiating early action on the offensive end and his ability to get the ball to the bucket makes it difficult for Houston defenders to corral him and keep him in front. For his teammates, it opens up more opportunities on the perimeter for kick-outs and catch-and-shoot 3’s.

“He just puts pressure on the defense,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “Obviously he’s really good at attacking gaps, getting to the lane and putting pressure on the rim which forces the help which opens things up for the rest of us.”

REBOUNDS. The Thunder have outrebounded the Rockets in all four games of the series for a whopping total of 194 boards to Houston’s 163. A major factor in the OKC’s defense is its ability to finish off a strong defensive play with a rebound. Houston averages over 50 3-point attempts per night which means long rebounds for the Thunder to wrangle which becomes even more difficult on a possession where OKC had to scramble to contest. Discipline to carve out space, box out and limit Houston’s second chances will continue to be a key focus as the series continues.

“Rebounding is critical, and they're a hard team to rebound against…” said Donovan. “We've done a good job up to this point in time of rebounding it. But that's going to be every game something that's got to be critical for us to concentrate on because they're a very, very good offensive rebounding team.”

After overcoming a 15-point deficit to win in Game 4, the Thunder have now recorded its ninth comeback of 15 or more points this season. The win also ties for the fifth largest comeback in OKC postseason history. Throughout the season, the Thunder have made an identity off of generating quality looks when the game is on the line and the clock is dwindling and staying disciplined on defense to get the job done.

“Our guys have done a good job in late games during the course of the year, but I think the biggest thing for us in those situations is us generating good shots. And also we got to defend. You have to defend late game as well as there's two sides of the ball,” said Donovan. “You try to go out there and control things that you can control.”