Game Notes: Oklahoma City Offense vs New Orleans Pelicans (1st Half Only)
The game will be broken down and cut up in chronological order as I go through it in 4-minute segments
1st Quarter 12:00 to 8:00
Pelicans defending Shai
The eye-popping story early on was how intent the Pelicans seemed to be to not get beat by Shai Gilegous Alexander. Rightfully so on a top 10 player in usage rate in the NBA that is surrounded by younger guys. Here are some clips of the early denials, load ups to the ball, and a blitzed ball screen possession vs SGA.
Little interesting to note here as the Thunder go to a little Pistol guard to guard ball screen here. This was the first possession of the game where Shai was a ball screen handler. Still blitzed the guard-to-guard action.
See Shai grab and goes here which allows him to play in the open court. In order to maximize Shai’s dynamic downhill scoring ability they will need more open-court possessions off misses and turnovers like these.
OKC’s Offense
Now whenever you have a star player that a team is really trying to take away, usually your offense is left with one of two options
- Find creative ways to get him the ball
- Leverage your offense to use him as a decoy to create shots for others.
This is not a black or white answer, you will always get a mix of both and still want to get your best player the ball, but may favor one side over another. Let’s look at some of the things OKC did with Shai once seeing how the Pelicans were playing early on.
Middle Inverted Ball Screen (SGA Screener)
Something the Thunder run frequently in almost every game I have watched this year and have gotten a ton of mileage off it. Counter off-ball denials with ball screens is usually a pretty effective option. The camera does not allow you to get full view, more than confident you will see it again.
SGA Early 45 Cut (Dort Beating Under with Speed)
Shai’s 45 cut here off the major denial from Herb Jones here frees up space for the pitch with Williams and Dort. Important coverage attack here from Dort using his speed to beat his defender to his spot going under, and finishing at the rim.
Love Shai’s willingness to just cut here off the delay catch. Important lessons for players of all ages. Do not beg for the ball! Will kill the flow of your teams offense.
Thunder Early Attack off Make
Nothing to really note with this one. Just loved how quickly the Thunder got the ball out of the net, hit ahead and hit the second side of the floor in less than 5 seconds.
1st Quarter 8:00 to 4:00
The second 4 minutes showcases a very important lesson about attacking P&R coverages. Shai also scored 5 points in this stretch out of transition opportunities.
Williams Short Roll (2 Side Pin In) & Williams Short Roll (Baseline Burn)
On these two possessions, Williams is short rolling towards the middle into the 2 side from a middle ball screen. This is a really effective floor balance for a short roll if that is what a team wants to get out of their aggressive coverage attacks.
They also do a nice job of simplifying this read out of the numerical advantage for him with the pin in on the first possession from high man and then baseline burn cut from the low on the second. Also really impressive by Williams (screener) to utilize these late-angle flips to get into the middle.
Single Side vs Aggressive
This showcases a bad floor balance to attack utilizing the short roll. Williams looks like he wants to short roll, but with the ball screen set so far on the side, there’s little room for Shai to get off the pass, and is an easy rotation for the Pelicans. Thankfully Dort makes something out of nothing.
If the Thunder wanted to attack with this single side roll and the Pelicans helping low and opposite on the roll, their best bet is for the ball handler to get it out quickly and try to get the low man in a closeout off another extra pass.
1st Quarter 4:00 to End
The next four minutes feature some more ball screen fun. The Thunder also made some interesting lineup changes to switch their attack. Halfway through this little 4 minute segment you would start to wonder at what point the Pelicans switch their coverages up (might do so, but I am watching as I go)
Saric Pop 45 (Giddey Handler)
Dario Saric checked into the game early into this 4 minute segment to play the 5. Saric is much more perimeter oriented and a more respectable shooter as a real pick & pop threat.
Thunder try to get him a look here vs their regular drop coverage with Giddey as ball handler but he gets all the way to the rim.
Shai Middle Inverted with Shooter
I like this idea a lot from the Thunder and see what they are trying to do by pinning in for the corner but I would like this a little more if the shooter was ghosting or popping out to the single side side with this spacing.
Saric Angle Flip off from Drag for Pick and Pop
Another nice angle flip here from Saric who is in position to set the Drag screen. With an easy from the single side corner if he pops, Saric wants to get back to the middle if he can help it like he does here.
Shai reject off Angle Flip
Almost a similar situation here but the angle flip opens up the reject for SGA.
2nd Quarter 12:00 to 8:00
This 4 minute stretch was a little stale for the Thunder with SGA in the game. However, they found a way to get some good looks out of their special situations & got some productivity out of Aaron Wiggins
ATO Elbow 45 Counter
I covered the Thunder’s Elbow 45 Series and some of their actions that they liked to go to out of it early in the regular season and preseason. However, this is a new one I kind of like.
Usually, they like to flare slip or flare and dive out of this series versus switching teams off the ball. I do like the angle this sets up for the slip though.
BLOB
Wiggins Touch Screen (Skill: Williams Wrap Around Bounce Pass)
Aaron Wiggins might hold the crown for the best touch screener in the NBA in my past two years watching him. Those not familiar with the touch screen please check out my Twitter where I have covered this switch attack extensively.
2nd Quarter 8:00 to End of Half
With the 8-minute mark to the 4-minute mark being rather uneventful in terms of tactical things to talk about, I am combining the last 4 minutes into one segment. Interesting to see how when Gilegous Alexander came back into the Pelicans mixed up their ball screen coverages throwing multiple different looks at him.
Pelicans Changing to Multiple Coverages
The Pelicans do a great job with their adjustments by being able to throw in some different coverages against SGA to force some less than ideal possessions from the Thunder. In order to get them to shift their approach to attack.
Horns Out Shai
Remember when I talked about the 2 options early the Thunder had? Yeah this clip and the next one both kind of fall in that category. As they are trying to get SGA a clean catch in space.
Shai Middle Inverted as Screener
Seeing a majority of switching here in the ball screen game with SGA as the handler, they go back to the middle inverted ball screen (maybe 6th time running guessing off top of my head).
Like this one possession though cause it isolates Shai deeper and they play off his scoring gravity and attack the load up to get Giddey a good look from 3.