Defense wins championships, right?
By Shreyas Laddha
Steven Adams block leads to transition bucket (:35)
This clip is the perfect embodiment of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season. The play starts off with former Cleveland Cavalier point guard Isaiah Thomas driving towards the hoop. He tries to go in for the layup, but out of nowhere Steven Adams of the Thunder steps up and blocks the ball which lands in the hands of Carmelo Anthony of OKC. Anthony gets the ball ahead to point guard Russell Westbrook who turns on the jets and gets a quick transition bucket. This exemplifies the stellar defense of the Thunder and the offense that has been lackluster except in the fastbreak game.
According to Nba.com,the Oklahoma City Thunder rank 7th in the league in defensive rating. On the other hand, the offense has been abysmal and ranked 24th in the league in true shooting percentage. The Thunder have excelled at turning opportunities from blocks which they rank 10th in the league with 5 blocks per game average into transition opportunities. They rank 1st in the league with 1022 transition possessions.
A major reason why the Thunder excell in defense is due to Thunder center Steven Adams. Adams is a great rim defender and excellent rebounder as shown by being 1st in offense rebound percentage. On the other hand, the biggest reason why the Thunder rely heavily on transition offense is because of point guard Russell Westbrook who is known for grabbing defensive rebounds and running the offense down the floor as shown by his average of 9.4 rebounds per game as point guard which is unheard of!
The Thunder’s reliance on defense and transition offense has kept them afloat in this tough Western Conference. Although the Thunder has overall offense struggles, their transition opportunities have led to easy points. For the Thunder to go far in the playoffs, they need to have a balance of both good offense and a great defense. Recently, the Thunder have lost 6 of 8 games all which can be attributed back to their defense slipping from its usual stellar self.
