At one moment in the second half on Sunday night, the Thunder led by 17 points. Minutes later it trailed by seven and 184 seconds after that, it was walking off the floor with a 98-95 win over the Sacramento Kings. In the NBA, your fortunes can change just that quickly.
As the team re-assembled on Monday morning to get back to work at the INTEGRIS Thunder Development Center, Head Coach Billy Donovan used the session to help the players lock in on consistency throughout all four quarters. Developing effective bench production game-after-game is a focal point for Donovan, but it is also a team-wide goal to make sure that no possession is wasted.
“These guys have played long enough that they know how quickly the game can change and how many possessions that there are in a game,” Donovan said. “The consistency and discipline of doing those things that we can control becomes important.”
While what happens from possession to possession is what determines the outcome of the game, Donovan always assesses the entire 48 minutes as a whole after every contest. The very first number he looks at on the box score is the number of assists his team generated on the night, using it as a signifier of the way the Thunder “moved the floor” throughout the night.
“If you have a high number of assists, there’s an idea that we’re moving the ball and getting open shots,” Donovan said. “We have two prolific one-on-one players who can manufacture and create shots on their own, so there is a balance there. Some of the guys on our team need ball movement to get good looks. Assists to me are a barometer of your unselfishness as a team and the way you’re moving and sharing the basketball.”
The Thunder is in the middle of the pack right now in terms of assists, and while shots not falling lately has been a cause of some lower-than-normal assist numbers, the team has other ways to evaluate play. Point guard Russell Westbrook takes to film study to determine whether he and his teammates are putting together an offensive flow that is conducive to winning basketball.
“Usually you can see if you play with a good pace and play the right way,” Westbrook offered. “If you play the right way you can live with the results.”
An element of Westbrook’s role with this Thunder group is to be an orchestrator of the offensive flow in the half-court while still maintaining his north-south attacking style. Getting teammates shots in a rhythm and location where they are used to shooting is how Westbrook has worked his way up to second in the NBA in assists per game.
For players like Steven Adams, Westbrook knows that lobs at the rim or passes to the dunker spot are best.
With Enes Kanter, it is bounce passes into the deep post. For shooters like Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Anthony Morrow, Westbrook knows to draw an extra defender and then kick the ball to the wing, and for fellow playmakers like Dion Waiters and D.J. Augustin, it’s creating enough space that a pass can force a defender to close out ineffectively, opening up a secondary driving lane.
“It’s just watching film, seeing where they’re most comfortable and the most efficient,” Westbrook explained. “There are a lot of different things that go into it. You have to give guys the ball where they can score, and that’s my job.”
Source: http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/practicereport_151207
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