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Thunder Scouting Report

by HighTops on Feb 11, 2011 3:51 PM PST

Tomorrow’s game against Oklahoma is the last home game for the Kings before the trade deadline. And, although I don’t believe the Kings will be involved in any serious player movement, it is possible this will be the last chance for our current lineup to prove that the Lakers and Hornets wins weren’t flukes.

This will be the 2nd of four games against the Thunder. The Kings and the Thunder played back on December 17th in OK City with the home team prevailing 102-87. The game was close for 3 quarters before the Thunder ran away with the 4th quarter 30-20. The Kings got as close as 6pts in the final quarter before the Thunder went on an 8-0 run and put the game away.

Both teams had identical fast break points (10) and offensive rebounds (14), but the Thunder dominated the points in the paint 56-48 and had 2 fewer turnovers (13-15). The Kings bench of Casspi, Garcia, Jeter, Dalembert, Landry, Jackson, and Head combined for only 19 pts and were outscored by 13 pts by the Thunders bench. Tyreke was the Kings leading scorer with 22, and Beno and DeMarcus each had 19. But, JT and Donte were held to 8 pts on 4-12 shooting. Cousins was the leading rebounder with 15 and JT was 2nd with 8. To go along with his great points and rebounds stats, DeMarcus had some less than stellar ones also, like 5 turnovers, being blocked 3 times, and he fouled out of the game with 3 minutes left.

Oklahoma started Green, Durant, and Ibaka on the frontline with Collison playing 22 minutes off the bench at center. Four of the 5 starters and 2 of the reserves scored in double figures with Durant scoring 24 and Westbrook scoring 21. Ball movement was the Key to OK City’s success, with Westbrook and Maynor contributing 6 and 5 assists respectively, and Green and Durant contributing 5 assists each. More importantly, 15 of their 21 assists were at the rim where the Thunder shot 26-33 (78.8%) on 16 assisted baskets. In contrast the Kings shot 21-30 (70%) on 7 assists. The Kings also committed 6 more Personal Fouls; leading to 10 more FTA’s and 6 more made FT’s. And between the baskets at the rim and the FT’s, you have the Thunders margin of victory.

Oklahoma City is in 1st place in the Northwest Division 3.5 games ahead of Utah and Denver who are tied for 2nd. The Thunder have a record of 33-18, and are 18-8 at home and 15-10 on the road. Over their last 10 games they are 6-4 overall and 3-2 on the road.

Both the Kings and the Thunder play at a similar pace, and the Kings are actually slightly better defensively. While the Thunder are percentage points better in Defensive Rebounding Rate, Steals, and Blocks, the Kings allow 0.6 pts less a game on better 3pt defense. The Thunder are the far better offensive team and rank 5th best at 104.6 ppg compared to the Kings who rank 5th worst at 97.3 ppg. OKC’s FG% at 45.9% is only slightly better than the Kings 44.2% and the two team’s 3P% are almost identical (33.6% OKC, 33.5% Kings). The main difference in the scoring comes from the Thunders FT shooting which ranks 1st at 82.8% and they are 2nd only to Denver at getting to the FT line. The Thunder average 30.3 trips to the FT line per game and make 25.1. Which is why, even though they have the 6th worse 3P% (Kings are 4th worst), the Thunder have the 8th best TS%. While the Kings who have the 4th worst FT%, also have the 3rd worst TS%.

Nenad Krstic who missed the last game due to a back injury will be starting at center. Krstic averages 7.6 pts / 4.6 rebs in 22 mpg. Jeff Green who averages 15 pts / 5.8 rebs, and Kevin Durant who leads the league in scoring with 29 ppg and leads the Thunder in rebounding, complete the frontcourt. Thabo Sefolosha a defensive SG who averages 5 pts / 5 rebs, and Russell Westbrook the 2nd leading scorer for the Thunder at 22.5 ppg make up the backcourt. Westbrook also leads the team in assists at 8.6 apg. James Harden last year’s #1 pick and Serge Ibaka are the primary reserves averaging 25.9 mpg each. While Eric Maynor is the backup PG averaging 4.5 pts / 2.4 assists in 14 mpg. Durant, Harden and Maynor are the top 3pt shooting threats.

A couple of stats from the SSSI, the Thunder have scored at least 100 pts in their last 7 games, and the Kings have allowed 100 pts in 4 of their last 10 games including their last 3. OK City is 27-7 in games where they’ve score 100+ pts and they are 18-6 against sub-.500 teams. Throw in the fact that the Thunder has improved their 3pt shooting to 44% in their 4 games in February, and things don’t look promising for the Kings.

Here’s an interesting quote;
“Teams always load the paint up on us,” he said. “Statistically we don’t have a great three-point shooting percentage, so the strategy is most teams will force you to take perimeter shots. One of the things is, we don’t give into that strategy. We attack the basket. We get to the free throw line. I feel confident that we’re going to make shots if it’s the right play or the right pass or the right spacing and those are the ones you drive hard and draw a defender then kick it out to the open shooter. Those are the threes that we make. The bad ones are the forced ones, the one-on-one shots.”

No, that’s not from Coach Westphal, although it would seem to apply to the Kings. It’s actually from Scott Brooks coach of the Thunder. So as daunting a task as stopping the Thunders offense might seem, Brooks has laid out the plan for us. The Kings need to load the paint, stop penetration, and cutoff the passing lanes in the paint. We can’t allow the Thunder to get 16 easy baskets at the rim. But, at the same time that’s exactly what the Kings need to do. Attack the paint and get easy baskets for our bigs. The team that does that the best, Wins. Go Kings.

(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)

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Comments

Should be a winnable game if we play how we been playing as of late

I expect a HUGE game from Cousins, and this is the last time you will see Landry at Arco/ Power Balance. I think he gets traded by the deadline.

The Maloofs will always be some playas, Geoff Petrie can neva be a hata, Chris Webber will always be a playa, Mike Biiby can neva be a hata, Vlade Divac will always be a player, Doug Christe can neva be a hata, Bobby Jackson will always be a playa, Peja Stojakovic can neva be a hata, White Chocalate will always be a playa, Rick Adelman can neva be a hata, Pete Carril you know he's a playa, Kevin Martin can neva be a hata, Omri Casspi will always be a playa, DeMarcus Cousins can neva be a hata, Tyreke Evans now that's a real playa, THE SACRAMENTO KINGS NOW THEM SOME REAL PLAYAS!!!!!

by slamson on Feb 11, 2011 11:22 PM PST reply actions

Well you got a huge something from cousins.

by chenp22 on Feb 13, 2011 4:03 AM PST up reply actions

thanks a lot HT

by MichaelMack on Feb 12, 2011 4:29 PM PST reply actions

Follow up

All I can say is Bravo. Bravo to the Kings for a game well played and Bravo to the 15000 fans who created so much noise that I’m sure it caused the backboard to rock when Durant missed his 2nd FT.

Before I get to the game I’d like to take a moment to talk about the refs. This “respect for the game” issue is rediculous. Every ref in the league has their own interpretation and it’s becoming an issue that hurting the integrity of the league. Players can still complain and not get called but Tyreke jumps in the air and he gets a technical.

There were other bad calls like Collison jumping with 2 feet right into Donte while he’s already in the air. The offensive foul that wiped out Sammy’s drive to the rim. Now I’m not one for having the ref’s deciding the outcome by calling a charge or block on the last play of the game. But, when Collison’s big white arm is holding onto DeMarcus and not allowing him to leave his feet for a last second tip-in, man that has got to be called. And, just like in the Clippers game when Griffin did the same thing, I can’t believe that all 3 refs missed that foul. There will be no “respect for the game” either by the players or the fans until the refs grow a pair.

Now to the game. The game was all about the paint. I said in my report

We can’t allow the Thunder to get 16 easy baskets at the rim.

And, that’s what the Kings did. They held the Thunder to 21-32 in the paint on only 5 assists instead of the 26-33 (78.8%) on 16 assisted baskets in the last game. At the same time the KIngs shot 28-49 on 12 assists. And, when they were’t scoring in the paint the Kings were rebounding. They had 5 more offensive boards and 8 more defensive boards.

But like so many of our games this year, the Kings had too many turnovers (18). The majority coming off of the Thunders 9 steals, and leading to way too many fast break points. And, in the end the loss could be contributed to a half court prayer by Maynor, a miracle 4 pt play by Durant, poor 3pt shooting by the Kings, blown calls by the refs, but by no means can it be blamed on the final play or Tyreke’s execution.

Here’s my interpretation of the final play. Durant was defending the inbound pass, and Collison was tight on DeMarcus. Any attempt to get the ball to DeMarcus would have been 50/50 at best. If they really wanted to get the ball to DeMarcus on the inbound pass, they should have set some type of screen or pick on Collison to create separation.

Omri cut thru the passing lane to Cousins, futher making the pass to Cousins more difficult. But, Omri was open since his man choose to go under Collison and Cousins. Although he was closing out quickly, so if Donte had passed to Omri, Casppi would of had to turn and put up a contested shot. And, because his man was coming from Cousins position, he would have been in Omri’s passing lane to Cousins.

The cross court pass to Beno was suicide, so the only safe option that Donte had was the unrestricted passing lane to an open Tyreke. Which is exactly what the Thunder were willing to give up. Remember this quote from Brooks

you drive hard and draw a defender then kick it out to the open shooter. Those are the threes that we make. The bad ones are the forced ones, the one-on-one shots."

“The Bad Ones” that’s what they gave us, the one-on-one shots. Tyreke was defended by Harden who had 5 steals for the game. So, Tyreke took the open jumper with enough time for DeMarcus to put back the offensive rebound. He did miss, Collison got away with holding on Cousins, and the Thunder squeeked out a win.

Final thoughts on the post game events. Frustration has been building on this team all season, and DMC isn’t the only one to show his feelings. Yes, he went over the top on this one, and I believe his anger was misplaced at least for this game. I believe the blame for the Frustration starts with the front office not adding more veteran playmaking and shooting, down thru the coaching, and ending with way to high opinion by the players of their own talents.

It doesn’t look like we’re going to see a change in coaching or in the players feeling of self importance. So, let’s hope the FO changes their stance on bring in some veteran help by the trade deadline. Throwing these kids in the deep end of the pool to try to teach them to swim isn’t exactly working. They’re drowning each other trying to keep their heads above watter.

"If you don't have anything good to say, LIE" - Mom
The greatest impact player in NBA History - Tim Donaghy

by HighTops on Feb 13, 2011 2:21 PM PST reply actions 1 recs