Kiwi Steve in the NBA #3: Setbacks & Shackles
BOX SCORES
vs BOSTON CELTICS (L 101-94):
33 MINS | 7 PTS (3/5 FG, 1/2 FT) | 10 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PF
at PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (L 103-99):
31 MINS | 4 PTS (2/3 FG) | 4 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 4 TO | 4 PF
at SACRAMENTO KINGS (L 94-86):
29 MINS | 14 PTS (4/5 FG, 6/6 FT) | 6 REB | 5 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 4 PF
NEXT WEEK
at DENVER NUGGETS, Friday at 4.30pm (NZT)
vs LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS, Saturday at 3.00pm (NZT)
vs DALLAS MAVERICKS, Monday at 1.00pm (NZT)
vs BOSTON CELTICS (L 101-94):
Say, look, it’s the NBA’s biggest cartoon fan! Rick and Morty get the honours this time after his pronounced love for anime in the past. Rumour is that he dressed as Rick for the Thunder Halloween bash… though the pictures haven’t emerged yet.
An incredible thing happened here. Perhaps it was some Rick + Morty inspired sci-fi heroics because when Kiwi Steve went all the way up and dunked on Aussie Aron Baynes… woah mate. Dropped the hammer so hard that Baynes is lucky his top knot even survived. BANG. That one’s for the underarm, assholes! (although it looked to hurt his hand some).
Interestingly Adams, Russ and PG all played the entire first quarter. It worked too as they ground it down, pushing out to a 31-18 lead by the end of the frame. With the Celtics being the youngest team in the NBA and all that, this was about physicality and OKC were too rough. Crazy stat-line for Adams in the firstie too: 4 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. Bringing it all. Hey and the one missed shot he had, right at the end of the quarter, probably should’ve been a foul on Horford before the shot… but given it’s Kiwi Steve, probs gotta live with that knowing he’s got away with worse in the past.
Russ was bossing the show with 12p/7a/5r in the first two quarters but that Kyrie fellow wasn’t having nearly as much fun. He shot 1 of 9 for the first half. A Jayson Tatum spark of points ensured the Celtics didn’t fall too far off but the lead was at 18 points by the middle break. With Steven Adams, by the way, playing some absolutely fierce basketball. He had another scare hauling in a defensive boards where he seemed to tweak that same right hand again but he shook it off and ran down the court to set a screen for Rusty.
However things changed in the third. Whatever Brad Stevens had to say in the sheds, whatever he put in the orange juice, it worked. Kyrie found his touch and the Celtics came surging back. OKC meanwhile couldn’t make a shot for a while, Boston going on a 17-5 run and bringing it all the way back. Carmelo Anthony was laying more bricks than Auckland housing developers.
In the end it was only really a Ray Felton triple near the end of the frame that kept the Celts from shooting for the lead at the buzzer, OKC up 71-67 with a quarter left to play. Billy D wasn’t so chuffed with the defence while the Thunder only scored 16 in the 3Q.
It went tit for tat in the fourth until Semi Ojeley tied it up at 79-all with a corner three – the first tie since it was 6-6. There were less than six minutes remaining and very soon after Steven Adams was back in to join things. And about the first thing he did was get a hand in Al Horford’s face as he drilled a tough three for the Boston lead. Paul George threw one down with force and then Kyrie Irving came up with a five-point play – hitting a three on Westbrook, missing his free throw but doing a Westbrook in getting his own miss back for the easy finish. Suddenly the bloke that couldn’t hit a shot in the first half couldn’t miss in the second (after starting 1/11 he made his next seven FGs in a row).
The last couple minutes were then immensely entertaining. Irving missed one with Adams challenging at the rim but then burned him on his next move. Horford hit a triple but Roberson – of all people! – countered with a corner treble of his own. Carmelo missed a three to take his numbers to 3/16 from the field while Horford made ANOTHER three. Paul George ticked some points over. It came down to about 30-odd seconds left, OKC down three and trying not to foul. Kyrie got the switch that left Adams guarding him and, mate, Irving just blew by him for the score. Melo rimmed another desperation three and that was effectively that.
Kiwi Steve: “It's more confidence in the adjustments, in all your preparation before the game. It's having confidence in that, then knowing that they're going to make some sort of adjustments, then staying locked up in that aspect. Just the awareness of getting back quick, getting offensive boards, getting to their players fast. We've just gotta be more ready with it.”
Kyrie ended with 25 points, while Al Horford was 4/4 from deep fir 20 points and 8 boards. George scored 25 for OKC but Melo only had 10 (3/17 FG, 0/5 3PT) and Russ a solid enough 19 points and 11 assists. Stevie only took five field goal attempts – probably wanna balance that out with some of Melo’s misses to be honest. At least he still outscored Baynesy. But the Thunder were outscored 64- 39 in the second half so… yeah.
Thunderous Intentions Player Grades: STEVEN ADAMS – B+
“Adams had another solid game, but not like the Adams of recent. He finished with 7 points 10 boards. He played great defense again but the Thunder needed some extra points from him tonight. Other than that, another solid effort from Steven Adams.”
Oh by the way we’ve got this Patreon stuff going, where you can see a few extra vids and things that don’t get shared to the site for the cheeky price of, what, half a glass of beer a month? Your liver (and your brain) will thank you for it, why not.
at PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (L 103-99):
The Thunder dropped to 4-4 after throwing that Boston game away (or alternatively having it stolen from them by Kyrie Irving). Next up was a trip to Portland to play against one of their potential rival playoff teams, Damian Lillard ready to offer more of the same after what Kyrie just did, and… you know how some games it feels like everything that can go wrong will go wrong? Yeah. Welcome to Portland.
The most controversial moment was the ejection of Carmelo Anthony in the third quarter. As Billy Donovan said, you don’t see too many and-one calls end up with the dude who scored the bucket getting ejected but that’s exactly what happened after a review. Melo’s elbow got Josef Nurkic in the face and the Portland big fella went down hard. The refs checked the tape and reversed their call to be a flagrant-2 on Melo and he was done with more than 16 minutes still left in the game, OKC down 68-57 after Nurkic split his freebies.
How’d they get into such a precarious position? It didn’t help that the best first half team in the NBA, the Thunder, were uncharacteristically off. They picked things up in the second to only trail 50-36 at the break but when you shoot 8/22 in the first then you’re in a bit of trouble for the rest of what’s to come. Steven Adams made his first layup attempt and Melo hit his initial four shots in a row but some bloke called Nurkic was putting them in at the other end, Kiwi Steve slipping up on the defence for once. After Melo made it 13-all with a jumper from 16-feet, OKC missed six shots in a row – a streak that was exacerbated by a couple fouls and a three-second call on Steve-o.
That was the way it was going and Adams was only just returning to the action with four fouls when Melo was sent packing. Funny thing was that down double-figures with a poor second-half record and one of their main scorers kicked out of the game, the Thunder actually sparked a bit of a comeback. Paul George and Raymond Felton made hoops and OKC saved their best ‘til last with a 32-point 4Q.
Russ put up numbers here but defensively he had huge troubles with Dame Lillard (as did Steve when Lillard got round his screens) and he missed five free throws… meanwhile Lillard was 15/15 from the line. Yet when PG hit a three with 1:22 left that made it a 93-91 game, only two points behind. Russ and CJ McCollum traded clutch threes but then Lillard was able to run the wide berth towards the hoop for a crucial two points and as Westbrook missed three consecutive free throws after an Evan Turner foul, the game slipped away.
27 points for George on 21 shots and 25 for Russ on 25 shots. Yet Adams only shot 2/3 for 4 points as he was largely crowded out on offence. Add in that he only had 4 rebounds, none of them at the offensive end, and 4 turnovers and 4 fouls and you had a poor night for Steve even before you look at the 25 points (11/15 FG) that Nurkic dropped on him. Lillard had 36 points and 13 rebounds.
Daily Thunder: “Steven Adams was worked by Jusuf Nurkic, who put up 25 points and 8 rebounds. Adams finished with 4 points and 4 rebounds in 31 minutes — his worst performance of the season thus far.”
Thunderous Intentions Player Grades: STEVEN ADAMS – F
“Adams got roasted all night by Nurkic. The Blazers attacked him on the pick-and-roll nearly every possession and Adams was a step behind every time. He made no offensive contributions and didn’t even rebound the ball well. Plain and simple, dating back to last season, Nurkic has owned Adams.”
at SACRAMENTO KINGS (L 94-86):
That’s not necessarily a good thing though, it just means he shoots from real close most of the time. Which he does. But back on topic here, what the Thunder needed after a couple ego bruisers like that was a nice and easy win. How about going away to play the 1-8 Sacramento Kings then? Yeah sure, that’ll do. A Kings team firmly in the old rebuild and a Kings team that didn’t even score a point until 6:23 to go in the first, OKC up 10-0 by then and already looking comfortable despite some missed shots.
And, bro, it was Kiwi Steve that was absolutely feasting early on. He had 10 quick points here, scoring the first three buckets of the game and later adding a couple free throws for kicks on top of that. So… file this one under an eventful first quarter. His block on Bogdan Bogdanovic was something else too, damn. After two very poor games by his standards, Kiwi Steve was back in business in Sacramento.
Stevie had 10 points (4/4 FG, 2/2 FT), 3 rebounds, 3 steals and a block… all in the first quarter!
Granted it was only against the Kings, one of the three worst teams in the NBA right now, but then suddenly the Kings didn’t look so bad. After going into the first quarter break down 25-10, they surged out on a 17-5 run to close it all the way back to only a three point difference when Adams popped up at the scorer’s table. Then they went ahead.
They stayed ahead too. Buddy Heild brought some balling off the bench and so did Justin Jackson, meanwhile an old nemesis of Steve’s in Zach Randolph was able to put up points too. The Thunder’s defence was mostly great other than the second quarter though. What was killing them was shot after shot missed by their big three.
This is where things get ranty in the Kiwi Steve report. In what way is it excusable to have a centre that drops 10 points in the first quarter as your team completely dominates and then he only gets off one more field goal attempt all game? A couple fouls meant he got to the line – where he was perfect, by the way – but other than that Steve became a screener for the other starters who were shooting like muppets. Steve made four field goals from five attempts. George made four from 16 attempts and Anthony four from 17.
Then to make things worse Steve didn’t even enter the game in the fourth until there was only 2:42 remaining in the contest. Which was when he missed that last layup of his, his first completed field goal attempt since quarter uno (since fouls don’t count). He only had two fouls – he picked up a further pair towards the end – so that’s no excuse for Billy Donovan either.
Daily Thunder: “Oklahoma City was 10/17 from the paint in the first half, and just 3/13 from the rest of the floor. As fate would have it, the team completely abandoned the interior approach in the second half. Steven Adams — who had 10 points in the first quarter — finished with 14 in the game.”
Westbrook ensured they were always in it down the stretch but you don’t win too many games shooting 33.7% from the field and ultimately that cost the Thunder big time. This was a loss that never should’ve happened.
USA Today: “To wit: Westbrook, George and Anthony combined to miss 39 of 54 shots against a Kings defense that entered play with the league’s third-worst defensive rating and which was 22nd in opponent’s field-goal percentage (46.3; the Thunder shot 33.7% overall). The Kings, who entered on a seven-game losing streak and won despite trailing 25-10 after the first quarter, held the Thunder to a combined 32 points in the second and third quarters.”
16 points for Melo, 12 for PG13 and 20 for Russ here. None of them made better than 1 in 3 from the field. Westbrook added 12 boards but his 6 assists were lacking here – you know that thing about OKC winning when he gets a triple-double? Four more assists and they would have. For Sacramento, Zach Randolph scored all 18 of his points in the second half while Hield ended up with 21.
ESPN: “Westbrook assisted on Oklahoma City's first four baskets, including three to Adams, but didn't get another until early in the fourth quarter.”
Thunderous Intentions Player Grades: STEVEN ADAMS - H
“The “H” stands for, “Hey, guys. Remember when I scored all those easy points early in the game and then you never passed me the ball again. Hey. Remember?””
SLAM DUNKS
Brett Dawson/The Oklahoman on OKC’s Defence: “Center Steven Adams is a good rim protector, but when an opponent has five players positioned on the perimeter, “you can't have him standing in there guarding nobody,” Donovan said. At times, though, point guards are seeking out the switch for the chance to be isolated one-on-one against Adams on the perimeter. That allowed Boston's Kyrie Irving and Portland's Damian Lillard to get a head of steam on key plays late in the past two games.”
Bleacher Report – Metrics 101: Who Are The NBA’s Best Sidekicks:
2. Steven Adams, C, Oklahoma City Thunder
“Adams isn't taking any mid-range jumpers. That's not any different. He's still a limited offensive presence who does the vast majority of his damage right at the rim. But he's showing just a bit more patience and touch in the restricted area, allowing him to finish 70 percent of his attempts from within three feet. During each of the last two go-rounds, that number stood at 65.5 percent.
More shots at the basket and a better conversion rate? Increased proficiency at the rim? Upping his points per possession as a PnR roll man from 1.09 (64.2 percentile) to 1.26 (71.8 percentile)? Turning the ball over even more infrequently? These are all marginal improvements that combine to have a larger effect.
Adams hasn't sacrificed any part of his game to become an increasingly vital part of the Oklahoma City scoring unit. He's just gotten better.”
How about that one, aye? First place was Klay Thompson while two through to ten, in order from third-best to tenth, reads: Paul Millsap, Aaron Gordon, Tobias Harris, Gary Harris, Patrick Beverley, Joe Ingles (ha!), Evan Fournier & Danilo Gallinari.
Mate, if you rated that for a read then say cheers by smacking an ad for us. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.