OKC Thunder WITHSTAND Hawks Triples | Chet Plays Big Again | Role Players Step Up
Oklahoma City Thunder outlast the Atlanta Hawks in a high-octane shootout, leaning on Chet Holmgren’s growing offensive arsenal and the relentless shot-making of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Despite the Hawks draining 25 threes and pushing the pace, Mark Daigneault’s squad stayed true to their paint-dominant identity, racking up 70 points inside while key role players like Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace delivered in crunch time. Can OKC sustain this resilience and defensive turnaround as the playoff race heats up?
Rylan Stiles breaks down OKC’s pivotal adjustments, including Lou Dort’s reduced fourth-quarter role, JDub’s under-the-radar two-way impact, and the significance of winning ugly when out of rhythm. With Isaiah Hartenstein still recovering and rotation challenges mounting, the Thunder’s evolving depth and maturity are put under the microscope. Could this be a preview of how OKC weathers playoff adversity against elite offenses? Don’t miss the strategic insights and player spotlights propelling the Thunder’s home stand.
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16 Comments
Keaton Wallace the Infamous hitting everythang.
Nickeil 30 vs Shai's 39
Hopefully they find another SGA in the draft.
I'm so sick of having to play out of skin against these garbage teams just to win because we can't shoot 3s reliably (outliers rarely). Our defensive schemes are cracking with these shoot fast teams. I can see it being our undoing against quality teams that play fast.
We can’t shoot,
It’s a concern.
⚡️
I think a lot of negative people here are (1) misunderstanding that even average NBA teams are decent, and (2) misunderstanding that teams are now changing their tactics against the Thunder.
Teams obviously know that we protect the paint and give up corner threes and they're now targeting these threes.
Our turnovers are lower BECAUSE teams aren't trying us in the paint. They're not risking these turnovers so we're not getting them. That looks bad statistically, but stats don't matter, WINS matter.
That's not a negative. That's the NBA ADMITTING they can't beat us inside and can only best us outside. Atlanta had the most 3 point makes in franchise history, and still lost. That's a good thing.
Some commenters are saying we can't shoot. We shot 54% from the field, 38% from three and 96% from the line. That's good shooting.
I predict we're going to see a lot more games like this going forward m it's naive to think that NBA teams and coaching staffs are going to just keep driving inside and getting slaughtered. That's just not going to happen.
It's GOOD that teams are strategizing against us. It means they admit they can't beat us with Plan A.
This sucks for Lou. He hasn’t played great this year in a contract year. Hopefully he can turn it around
What is the prognosis for JWill?
A Resounding win, Shai really showed upfront with menacing tenacity and determination he drove and dunked with intensity, can he keep ip the consistency like Edwards, Donovan, Brunson, fearlessly attacking like an elite M V P should each game he played unselfishness his efforts deserves a merit, and A J really came out aggressively, Jay Dub was showing signs of explosiveness but unable to put the basket in net is there something still affecting his Wrist injury
lol Chet full of emotion all of a sudden.. where were you last 2 weeks my guy?? You’re trade bait now buddy
If the BIG 3 can be consistent Scoring like this w/ a way Better defensive performance (like we’re use to. They’re repeating as Champs. But respect to the Hawks man- they were on 🔥 from 3🤦🏾♂️
🦬🌩️🥶🔶🏆🔶🥶🌩️🦬
⚡️⚡️THUNDER🆙⚡️⚡️
Starting to get a little concerned about our defense and the consistency! Do not think we can beat better teams in the playoffs if we are playing this way.
Rylan, the book is out on how to beat OKC in the regular season. Dont turn the ball over, aka crisp low risk passing and shoot the 3 ball at a high clip (bc OKC schemes to give up 3pt shots at expense of the paint). Ive never in the 13 yrs of watching OKC basketball seen so many teams get red hot from 3 like this season) but thats how OKC schemes their D and how now teams are prepping to face the thunder. I think the effort is there like last year however other good teams have figured some things out. Also we get energy from turning teams over and when we cant its a compount effect. Expecting the thunder to lock everyone down every night in the 3 ball era is unrealistic. Also they send 2 to crash the boards against us bc we've historically not been good at boxing out (yes even last year) leading to more wide open 3s. That hawks team now has 23,24,25 triples made in games this year so the fact the set the most number of 3s made in a game and our offense was good enpugh to win is not a bad thing. Sometimes teams are just going to be red hot especially since they know we will scheme to leave them open.
Does anyone else wonder why it seems like every team that plays us seems to shoot their highest percentages of the year? What is that about!
The Big 3 finally Big 3’d