They’re without their two superstars in Russell Westbrook (broken right hand) and Kevin Durant (broken right foot), so the Oklahoma City Thunder play a lot of high screen-and-roll ball with Reggie Jackson and either bigs Serge Ibaka or Steven Adams.
The Thunder are loaded with specialty players such as ex-Golden State Warriors floor spacer and three-point gunner Anthony Morrow and penetrator Sebastian Telfair.
When they put Nick Collison in the game he is used as a distributor from the high post, but he only averages one assist per game for his career and is not going to shoot many jumpers from there.
With six minutes remaining in their last game against the Brooklyn Nets, a 94-92 loss on Friday, Adams was used as the screen-setter for Jackson, extending his picks to the three-point line on just about every possession. Jackson will be looking to take it all the way to the rim. He doesn’t do much stop-and-popping from beyond the arc.
With the game on the line for Oklahoma City, they were set up underneath the basket on an out-of-bounds play. The inbounds started with two bigs on the low block and two smalls on the elbow, in a stacked formation. Jackson faked to go around a screen and cut straight for the hole, where Adams resides, in the restricted area. Adams cleared for Jackson, who received the ball too deep behind the basket. Jackson cleared like he’d just obtained possession in a street ball game back behind the three-point line, then attacked off the dribble… two points.
Jackson has a nice crossover, giving him the ability to snake around the court with control of the offense. He is also an explosive baseline scorer who utilizes the Euro-step to keep defenders guessing and off-balance.
But other than Jackson and Telfair, and without Westbrook and Durant, the Thunder have to piece together the attributes of their attack: dribble penetration and dishing out for the three. They don’t have a player who can do both and they’re not posting up Ibaka or Adams much, which has left them in their predicament sitting at 3 wins, 11 losses early in the season.
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