In the final minutes of Oklahoma City’s game four battle against the Denver Nuggets, Russell Westbrook made a couple terrible decisions. Decisions that may or may not have costed Oklahoma City the game. And while the poor shots that Westbrook took were in large part his fault, I feel like he is getting too much of the blame.
The reason why I feel this way is because in key situations where Westbrook took a bad shot, there were other people involved (whether it be a player/coach). Looking at the two biggest plays of the game gives us examples:
On this play, the Thunder get the basketball with 52 seconds left. Trailing by two points, you want to give yourself the most chances to get the win/tie, and this means get the most possessions you can. In this particular case, the Thunder need to get a two for one. If they score, they get one more possession to go for the win. If they don’t score, they don’t have to foul to get the ball back.
Watching the San Antonio Spurs play on the offensive end this series, it is obvious that the Spurs have gotten away from what has made them successful over the course of the regular season. While most of it has to do with the Grizzlies’ fantastic defense, I just get the nagging feeling that the Spurs have consciously been getting away from what they have done best. With the Spurs trailing the Grizzlies by five points with 4:00 left in the third quarter, we saw a perfect example of this:
After creating a turnover, the San Antonio Spurs were able to get out in transition with Parker bringing the ball down the court and Richard Jefferson running down the sideline.
When the Memphis Grizzlies tanked to get the San Antonio Spurs, it was safe to say that I didn’t really agree with the opinion. In fact, I predicted that the Spurs would run away with the series in a sweep. The biggest reason why I thought that there was going to be sweep was because I thought that the Spurs offensive system of getting the ball to the middle and kicking it out would cause problems for the Grizzlies’ defense.
At this point, it is safe to say that I was wrong. I don’t know if it was my overestimating of the Spurs’ offense or underestimating of the Grizzlies’ defense, but I obviously didn’t think that the Grizzlies could contain the Spurs. After seeing four games in this series, I think it has become obvious that the Grizzlies are really good at defending passing lanes, taking away what the Spurs want to do, get the ball in the corner and knock down the three point shot.
Game four was more of the same for the Grizzlies:
This camera angle gives us a perfect view of the Grizzlies and their defensive strategy against the Spurs. Here, Parker goes away from the screen and attacks the rim. Most defenses would collapse, giving up an open three to Matt Bonner. Instead of doing that, Zach Randolph stays in the passing lane, taking away the pass to the corner as Mike Conley and Marc Gasol defend Parker at the rim. The Grizzlies are funneling everything back to the middle of the court, where they can rotate and challenge the jumper.
