Thunder stifle Kevin Durant & Suns, what makes OKC dangerous contender | Hoops Tonight

Thunder stifle Kevin Durant & Suns, what makes OKC dangerous contender | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball all right moving on to thunder Suns I watched this game last night super super fun game to watch Oklahoma City is just a royal pain in the ass to play against

They play so incredibly hard I felt bad I I shouldn’t say felt bad I I know that KD and Bradley Beal were just like oh man these dudes are literally picking up full court they’re double teaming the second we cross half court like they

Weren’t it it was it was one of the most aggressive like start to finish defensive schemes that you’ll see in the regular season and it’s because Oklahoma city has the combination of a coach that can keep them organized enough to run these sorts of things properly and two

The young athletes that that have both the physical tools and the motor and energy level to maintain that over the course of a long basketball game most of the time like Phoenix doesn’t even run into these types of super aggressive coverages until the fourth quarter when

Teams are just trying to get the ball out of Kevin Kevin Durant’s hands or get the ball out of Deon Booker’s hands this was a start to finish we are we are pressuring the ball we are bringing double teams as soon as you cross half court where you’re playing passing Lanes

Even just like you know here’s the thing I’ve been I critical is the wrong word I’ve talked a lot about how I don’t necessarily believe in Oklahoma City as like a championship Contender because they’re small and because they’re young but I still feel that way you did see

Again last night like Yousef nurkic like what he have 31 rebounds just like just absolutely demolished them on the glass and there are teams around the league that bring a combination of what Phoenix brings to the table in terms of perimeter talent and interior presence teams like Denver even the Clippers like

You’re going to get Kawai and if zubot on the interior while also having all the perimeter type of talent that a team like Phoenix brings to the table those are the teams that I worry about for a team like Oklahoma City but even though they are perhaps maybe a touch too small and

Inexperienced to win the title that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a physical and Scrappy team they are a super physical and Scrappy team it’s one of the big reasons why in the long run I’m such a big believer in what this team can accomplish because if they do bring

In a legitimate forward to the table that raises their physical profile when they do go into this playoff run and get you know let’s say they win a first round series and then end up losing a really tough second round series or losing in the Conference Finals those

Are Battle Scars that build this team up to where in the future they can be a bigger and more experienced version of this crazy talented crazy physical crazy competitive Oklahoma City Thunder team and that’s what’s going to take them to the promised land of hoisting the Larry

O’Brien trophy but there were a bunch of specific things that I wanted to dive into and to demonstrate just how physical and Scrappy they are first of all physical switching so this is you know just imagine like Phoenix runs a lot of like off ball screening actions

To try to get Kevin Durant into Advantage situations around like the elbow and post area right like that that’s what makes Kevin Durant different from so many of these other stars around the league in the sense that like so many of the modern day stars are just operating out of dribble handoffs and

Ball screens and Kevin Durant can do that too that’s obviously a big part of his game but Kevin Durant will also like come off of a some sort of like wide pin down or like or like flare screen or something to try to get him into a

Position where he can catch with a triple threat you know 15 to 18 feet from the basket and then turn to face and try to go to work from there right one of the things the Thunder were doing in this game is like Lou dorts on him

And he’s just hugging on him like literally like holding him while he’s like standing on the Block waiting for that screen and so then down comes the screen and there’s a difference between passive switching and physical switching passive switching is like what the Clippers did to LeBron James in his

Crazy comeback run the other night here comes the screen you know Daniel Tai switches but he just like starts guarding LeBron from you know 3 four feet away and kawhai will just go away with the other guy right and so no one’s there making LeBron feel uncomfortable

He’s just mixing up off the dribble and getting to his spot and making something happen physical switching is like I’m holding on to KD I’m L Dort here comes the screen Jaylen Williams just like Lou Dort literally passes him over to Jaylen Williams like Well Physical handoff and

Jaylen Williams is grabbing him as he’s coming off the other side of the screen and denying the catch and so as a result they were creating these really tight passing Windows because they’re three quarter front and denying KD all of his in all of his spots he already had to

Work super hard to fight Lou Dort up to the screen to where now he’s fighting to try to create a passing angle and then from there off the ball they’re constantly digging down and jumping into passing Lanes like whenever a team has a bunch of turnovers we’re so quick to

Focus on the team turning the ball over and being like they’re being sloppy and don’t get me wrong they were we’re going to talk about that in a minute but like give some credit to the defense like Oklahoma City forced Phoenix to lose their minds and create a bunch of really

Sloppy turnovers right the other thing on the ball there was a possession I clipped you can find it on my Twitter feed of shake y Alexander guarding KD and on this possession you can literally see like there’s two different ways to reach in and and like you know there’s

Like a lunging reach in right where I like really get out of position to try to get down to get to the basketball but I can also reach in while staying balanced and Shay is uniquely equipped with these like crazy long arms to where he can defensive slide with a guy and

Not have to really lunge or get out of position but he can still swipe down at the basketball and there’s this possession it’s a KD turnover Shay’s on the ball on KD ktie gets driving down to his left hand Shay literally swipes down at the basketball like six or seven

Times just from 25t to the from the basket down to 5 feet from the basket just swiping and swiping and reaching and swiping and then as soon as he gets downhill there’s a guy digging down from the corner and a guy coming up from the post and they’re all digging down at the

Basketball and so it ends up leading to a Kevin Durant turnover but the point is is like it’s hard it’s hard to take care of the basketball when a bunch of athletes with really long Wings spans who have been by the way picking you up full court all damn night double teaming

You all night long fighting you off of every single spot and you get a a a a driving lane like this and they’re reaching in like crazy and it’s just really difficult to navigate that I just wanted to give them some credit for that because I I didn’t think I didn’t think

These were just sloppy turnovers Oklahoma City sped Phoenix up and caused them to make a lot of these mistakes and then from their jumping passing Lanes like they just have so much straight line speed that like when a lane looks like it’s open you you know you’ll see a

A a hard double team come and there’ll be on the weak side like a shooter in the corner and a shooter on the wing and it’ll be like kissan Wallace or something playing in in between the two players and what he’ll do is he’ll kind

Of play back and like kind of bait KD into thinking the wing is open and he’s standing there and here’s the thing if he throws the skip pass to the corner even if he is lunging up he can still recover to that because there’s so much

Time but if he throws the skip pass to the wing he just shoots into that Gap and takes the basketball away it’s just it is a layered attack of ball pressure physical on the ball physical on screening actions physical in passing Lanes off the ball and they were just

They caused caused all sorts of problems for Phoenix which we’ll get into a little bit deeper here in just a minute uh sh sh Alexander’s ball control was the next thing I wanted to hit on there you know this was a classic example of you know and this is something that Shay

Has been doing forever so I don’t want to act like this is new but this I just wanted to dive specifically into sheay Guild Shay’s ball uh ball handling because you know we think of Shay as like a slow methodical player and don’t get me wrong he is he’s a very like

Change of pace and methodical type of on ball player but this is a guy that is really whipping the basketball around in a really controlled way with Advanced dribble combinations in traffic like he’ll get into his high hesitation and he’ll hit that hesitation move where it almost looks like he freezes in space

For a second but then he’ll hit that forward dribble and he’ll get into your body now there’s contact right he’s got his shoulder into you and the the defender’s like right up on him from there he’ll hit like a pullback dribble and then from there instead of just like

Making a simple move he’ll hit like in andout cross between the legs back to the right or he’ll like double between the legs and back to the left or these super Advanced dribble combinations in traffic while there’s contact going on and so that to me is is a big element of

What allows him to maintain control of the basketball while he’s making these complex counter moves it’s a ball handling thing we think so much about change of pace we think so much about his strength we think so much about his mid-range jump shooting and some of his

Footwork stuff that he has but a big part of it that goes under under the radar in a lot of these cases is his ball handling it you know there are a lot of players that can dribble when things are free and clear but then as

Soon as they get into contact they lose control of the basketball and Shay just has incredible control of the basketball in a physical environment then lastly down the roster shot making everybody on this team can make plays off the bounce there a first half play Chad hr’s

Bringing the ball up the floor it’s a transition Cross Match he’s got Royce O’Neal on him they just space the floor and chett just like hits a dribble combination gets downhill bodies Royce O’Neal and then pivots over his left shoulder and goes up and finishes screams and one in his face and you’re

Just like like it’s like okay this is the third guy that you have to deal with and and he’s just confidently attacking one of your best perimeter Defenders I just punched my mic cuz I got too excited about it but uh uh or or you’ll see like we know what Shay gilders

Alexander and Jaylen Williams can do but then like I see Lou Dort in the right corner in the second half um uh end up hitting Grayson Allen with a dribble combination it’s like between the legs crossover and then he just whips like a crazy left to right crossover and literally like Grayson

Allen almost Falls over going to his right hand side and then Dort goes along the Baseline now Grayson made a really nice defensive recovery on this play and got back into the play and blocked L Dort from behind as he missed a dunk but I’m sitting there thinking like this is

Your defensive-minded wing this is your three and D guy and he legit has the ability to make plays off the bounce he hit off the dribble jump shots in this game like that that’s just another layer of the shot making Josh giddy he can attack smaller Defenders he can work in

Pick and roll even bench guys there was a play that the the Suns defended perfectly and it led to a skip pass across the court to Cas Wallace in that right corner and it was a really good close out I think from Aaron Gordon if I remember correctly it might have been

Grayson Allen but he catches in the right corner great close out and he ends up hitting an In-N-Out sidestep jump shot in the right corner from three like a highlevel step back three attacking a close out in the right wing from your bench player who happens to be the guy

That you view as your three and D guy off the bench he like it it’s just it’s layer after layer of insane amounts of offensive skill and all of them can guard all of them can guard it it it was a really impressive win but like this is

Where it gets really scary for the long run like I said give these guys some Battle Scars in uh in a couple of long playoff runs give these guys a legitimate forward that can bang inside that can help them deal with some of their physical limitations they’re going

To be a gigantic pain in the ass for a very long time in this league on the Suns first big thing that stands out to me and this has been a theme throughout the season when it comes down to the aggressive double teams of their stars when they

Have all three of their stars out there it’s usually them with Grayson Allen and Yousef nerkish right from there there’s so much offensive skill on the floor that they can operate pretty well in the four on threes out of it right they’re like brief four on threes cuz none of

Their stars are great passers like they all like if you catch KD on the right night he can handle a double team really really well like I thought against s the the Sacramento Kings like a week and a half ago he had a really good game handling double teams right but then you

Watch him in other games and he really struggles with it that that’s the thing like you know when you’re talking about the best players in the league that are Playmakers guys like Luca joic LeBron right the guys in that tier like you want to make them a score right like

Your best bet is to like leave them on an island and hope they wear themselves out trying to score one-on-one and and by the way they’re still really good and they’re going to do that really well but that’s probably your best strategy for those guys when it comes to the best

Scorers in the league you want to test their playmaking ability you want to make them have to consistently make the best reads right and that’s the thing like this is the best way to guard the KDs and the Devon Bookers and the Bradley Beal type of guys in the world

You want to give them uh their biggest weakness which is if you let them go one-on-one they are professional one-on-one players they are going to be beat you if you let them go two on two in ball screens they are professional two on two scorers in ball screens they

Will beat you but if you put them in situations which targets their specific weaknesses you can get inconsistent play out of them which is what teams have figured out to do with Phoenix now when one of their stars is out it dips below that mandatory amount of that minimum

Amount of offensive Talent like there was a long Sabin Lee shift in the second half of this game and Oklahoma City’s just not guarding him and so if if I can double team the ball and there’s a guy on the floor I don’t have to guard I’m

Only giving up a three on three on the weak side that’s not an advantage and so like it really like I was on a a radio station in Phoenix this morning for a radio hit and and they they were asking me specifically what I like whether or not it was like a

Coaching issue or what what was going on last night and I’m like sometimes this is like this is just what happens when you when you when you start to run out of players right and then at the same time you need guys on the other floor

That other end of the floor that can guard an Oklahoma City team that brings a ton of ball handling and scoring to the table right and and and it just it was just one of those things where where I don’t know I don’t know the turnovers they have to be sharper right Kevin

Durant Bradley Beal Yousef nerkach there was a lot of like bad entry passes not protecting the basketball sloppy skip passes there was a lot of that that they just have to be better right but it’s also not an easy job unless you have four guys on the floor that can

Capitalize on four on three situations quickly and efficiently and as soon as one of their Stars drops out of the lineup it ends up being an issue now we did find out uh from sham Sania this morning that it looks like BR Kevin D excuse me Devin Booker is not going to

Be out more than maybe a week week and a half uh one thing one of the one last note on the Suns when they went on their big run in the second half of the game to get back into it they got back into it with their defense they were double

Teaming Shay gilders Alexander testing his playmaking ability and they were getting out and transition off of it and then they started making some threes it reinvigorated their defense they continued to pressure Shay with double teams and rotate out of it and they got back into the game with it and so that

You know and this is what I said on the radio this morning they have to be like OKC they can’t just be offensive skill guys because if they’re just offensive skill guys they’re going to lose to offensive skill guys who also are Scrappy they need to be be offensive

Skill guys who are Scrappy they need to be Scrappy they need to fight they need to be a team that defends and his physical flies around in rotation they have to do what the Thunder do at a higher level right because that’s the case the case for a team like Phoenix is

Like you know the Thunder just play harder than everybody in the regular season we get into the playoffs we start playing hard we are a scrappy team that fights on the perimeter and we have Kevin Durant Devin Booker and Bradley Beal which is a better set of shot

Creators than Jaylen Williams and sh Alexander and Chad holgren or however you want to sort that out with the Thunder now that that remains to be seen if that will play out like that in the postseason but that’s the case for Phoenix that’s the path for Phoenix they

Have to be the scrappy team they have to be the team that fought back into the game against the Thunder the way that they Did

Jason Timpf reacts to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 118-110 victory over Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns. Jason explains why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder have been successful all year, and when SGA is getting help from Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, they’re going to be tough to beat in the Western Conference.

Timeline:
00:00 – How close is OKC to being elite?
03:04 – Thunder defense stifles Kevin Durant & Suns
07:55 – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander masterclass
09:32 – What makes OKC’s offense potent
11:59 – The big problem for Suns
15:19 – Phoenix must elevate its defense

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