Kiwi Steve in the NBA #12: Houston At The End Of The Road
There’s nothing quite like the latter stages of an NBA game seven. Both teams desperate with their seasons on the line, their reputations too sometimes. And that was the position the Oklahoma City Thunder found themselves in for their first round series against the Houston Rockets. A Thunder team that ESPN had given a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs back in preseason (ten years ago, I think that was) and here they were in an absolutely chaotic and ridiculous game seven contest.
It ended with the ball being batted out of Steven Adams’ hands but there was so much that led up to that. Ignoring all the twists and turns of the series even just the last couple minutes of this game were wild enough. Both teams missed great shots. Russell Westbrook who had been so good after a shocker fourth quarter in game six missed multiple layups and there were turnovers from both sides, to go with Dennis Schröder shanking a layup and Chris Paul leaving a pull-up jumper short with the kind of shot he’d usually sink with his eyes closed.
Then with OKC down one on what would’ve been the final play of the series old mate Lu Dort, the breakout star of this Thunder playoff run, lines up a game-winning three... which even four hours earlier would have sounded insane but the dude scored 30 points in game seven, it was crazy.
When those shots go up, your eyeline goes straight to the basket. It’s hard to get a feel for a shot from a television screen so you just breathe in sharply and hope... but that ball never got there. James Harden came across and blocked it and then Dort gathered the ball from out of bounds (and tried to bounce it off Harden who acrobatically avoided it). OKC managed to foul twice and only take 1.3 seconds off the clock to put Robert Covington on the line. He missed the second, Dan Gallinari got the board. OKC timeout.
That gave them the in-bounds in Houston territory but they couldn’t get free. Billy Donovan ran damn near to half-court to call a timeout before they turned it over with a delay of game whistle... but a foul had already been called and since Chris Paul is the best referee in the NBA he spotted it like an eagle. Several loud moans later Dan Gallinari shot a free throw... but he missed it. Back to where we were, OKC in-bounds with 1.1 on the clock and this is what happened...
Safe to say that was not how it was drawn up. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander panicked when he threw it in to Adams, he had to get the ball in play and there was nothing else on. Even if Adams had managed to gather it with both Russell Westbrook and Eric Gordon in his face he still would have only had 1.1 seconds to turn towards the basket and get a shot off and a guy who has only ever made one three pointer in his career (a half-court heave earlier in this season) prooooobably wasn’t gonna bury that joker. It would have been nice to see him try, though. For a split second there would have been that tiny moment of potential for one of the all-time great moments in Aotearoa sport. But a game as frantic and sloppy as this one could only truly end on a frantic and sloppy note.
It ain’t on Adams, obviously. That was just panic with nobody open. The Thunder had two opportunities to run that in-bounds play and Billy Donovan threw out the same line-up both times, with SGA on the pass, and neither time could they get a player open.
Except, that is, for Steven Adams. PJ Tucker wasn’t hardly even watching him, he was waiting until the first chance he got to run off him and double up on a perimeter shooter. Adams meanwhile doesn’t even put his hand up for the ball, doesn’t even ask for it. A quick roll to the rim and he’s got an open shot on the lob to tie the game up but nope.
(That was the first inbounds pass but the play was basically identical the second time too)
The thing is though, the play wasn’t drawn up to get Adams involved. To best honest it’s hard to know why exactly he was out there in the first place since there was no time for an offensive rebound and they clearly didn’t want to draw it up for him. Was he just there to draw at least one dude away from the three-point line? Because that didn’t work so well. Also don’t ignore the fact that second-year SGA on the in-bounds wasn’t the most confident in taking a risk in that situation. He’s been hesitant to push the ball inside all series, dude had 44 assists to Adams through the regular season but only one – a mere uno – during the playoffs.
But as with all these moments you can analyse them to death and still not get any closer to the truth. These things happen in real time, with enormous pressure on them, and they tend to benefit the team that already has the lead. OKC missed chances in the last few minutes of that game. Houston did too. It was a messy game with a messy conclusion. But tell you what, Steven Adams grabbed five rebounds and a steal in the final 4:15 of this game - as much as people had debated whether he should even be on the court late on he did what he was there to do. He even spent time out there with Dan Gallinari on the bench, which Lu Dort’s big offensive night allowed them to do.
End of the yarn though, it’s the end of the road for the OKC Thunder in this elongated 2019-20 season. It started with a franchise-altering trade and then another franchise-altering trade and talk of a massive rebuild but ended with them taking a team with championship aspirations to the final second of game seven in the first round of the playoffs. OKC still haven’t won a playoff series since Kevin Durant left but they weren’t even supposed to be there. Not only that but they got serious minutes out of two rookies – Dort and Darius Bazley – which is one hell of a thing to say about a team that only had one draft pick last season and it wasn’t a lottery pick either.
Rockets vs Thunder Series In A Nutshell
Game One – Houston burst out to an early lead in the series on the back of 37 points and 11 rebounds from James Harden. The Rockets took the lead at 12-9 with 5:49 left in the first quarter and led the entire rest of the way with a lead that got as high as 23 points. Steven Adams put up his best numbers of the series and Dan Gallinari scored 29 but Houston shot 20/41 from deep and even without the injured Russell Westbrook they looked far too good with all their defensive switches and ball movement.
Game Two – The Rockets took a 2-0 lead on the back of an NBA record 56 three point attempts, only shooting them in the low-30s but defence got them over the line in this one. OKC were up by six at the half and still held a lead after three quarters but they came out cold in the fourth as Houston went on a 17-0 run, most of which coming through the second unit with Harden on the bench. SGA scored 31 for the Thunder. Steven Adams was 4/4 from the field but didn’t have a shot attempt in the second half.
Game Three – But then just when it was looking like a walkover, OKC came surging back. Dennis Schröder scored 29 points, Chris Paul scored 26, Gallinaro scored 23, and SGA scored 20. It was a typically dramatic finish to the game with both teams missing chances to win it before we went to overtime, but James Harden (38 points) fouled out right at the start of OT and the Thunder rolled to victory from there. Steven Adams sat out all of overtime having bruised his leg diving for a loose ball late in the fourth. He was cleared to return but the smaller line-up with Gallinari at the five was having so much success that Billy Donovan didn’t bother.
Game Four – The way that third game ended made you wonder if OKC would commit to the small ball game more often at the expense of Adams. By this time Lu Dort was establishing himself as a defensive icon but his lack of shooting made having both he and Adams on the court at once a tricky thing. Adams did see his minutes drop to a more judicious total but that small ball thing didn’t really end up happening consistently and it was actually their bench that dragged them back from 15 points down in the third to take the lead with the first possession of the fourth. Dennis Schröder was the hero with 30 points. Then Chris Paul stepped in with 26 points to control it down the stretch and Schröder iced it at the free throw line. Houston scored 36 more points from beyond the arc than the Thunder yet they still lost.
Game Five – Despite the fewer minutes, Steven Adams actually played really well in that fourth game. His energy was back up and he was attacking the boards. Not necessarily doing the things that clog up the stat sheet but definitely making a positive impact. He was very good again in the fifth game and on pace for his best statistical night of the series... only he didn’t play at all in the fourth as the Thunder got blown out. Russell Westbrook finally returned from injury, albeit with limited minutes, while James Harden scored 31 points. OKC never led in the second half and they never recovered from having Dennis Schröder ejected in the 3Q (PJ Tucker was also ejected in the altercation). This was the first game back after the player boycotts.
Game Six – And yet once again the Thunder came back. Dan Gallinari was cooking throughout for 25 points and Chris Paul brought his late game heroics to the bubble with some scintillating play as he scored 15 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter. Neither team ever held a double digit lead. And in the end it was Russell Westbrook who came up with a few defining plays as he misfired on the offensive end, including a turnover with only seconds remaining that effectively sealed it and took us to a decider. Not the prettiest Steven Adams game... though he made a menace of himself on the boards.
Game Seven – Kinda done this one already. Absolute chaos in the closing stages as both teams struggled to take command. James Harden was shit (in his own words) on offence with 17 points on 4/15 shooting while Lu Dort stunningly scored 30 points but in a reverse of their usual dual it was Harden with the crucial defensive play with the blocked three pointer against Dort. Houston somehow survived to advance to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round.
Should Steven Adams Have Been More Dominant This Series?
Before game one, Charles Barkley said on the telly preview that he thought Steven Adams would average 20 & 20 against the Rockets, he was too big and nobody could guard him, basically. Fast forward to the end of the series and he averaged 10.1 points and 11.6 rebounds. It wouldn’t be the first time Charles Barkley said something exaggerated without really thinking about it (still love ya though Chuck) but still you wouldn’t have been crazy to expect a whole lot more from Steven Adams. So why the discrepancy? Watch out people, here comes a countdown...
1) Not Enough Shots To Go Around
The crunch line-up of CP/Schröder/SGA/Gallo/Adams was one of the most dangerous in the NBA this season. The Thunder were immense in late-game situations. But while Adams does have a key role in that quintet... there are four legit jump shooters around him and those guys are all getting their shots up ahead of Adams in that pecking order. Just because he can score more doesn’t mean he should. Adams doesn’t create his own shot. He doesn’t stretch the floor with range. He’s the last person in that crew you’d draw a play up for (which is one of many ways to tell how that game seven deciding play had fallen to pieces).
2) Do Your Job Mentality
Simple one to explain: Adams is a coach’s dream in a lot of ways with how well he studies the gameplan and his complete dedication to it and to be honest he just wasn’t looking for more shots. He was passive at times when he could have demanded the ball in the paint, other times he’d get it and throw it straight back out. Obviously getting Adams 20+ points was never on the cards for OKC.
3) The Pick And Roll Conundrum
It used to be such a staple of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Russell Westbrook in the half-court with the ball, Steven Adams steps up to the perimeter and sets a hard screen. Westbrook attacks that screen, either getting the switch and skinning a bigger, slower defender or lobbing one up to a cutting Adams if his defender goes under. Old mate got a lot of points that way... but OKC operate differently with the steadier, more assured Chris Paul in town. Not only that but with a lot of three point shooters around, even when one of the guards did get penetration they usually preferred to kick it out to one of those shooters rather than feeding Adams down low. The fourth point comes into play here as well but let’s stay on the pick and roll for a second longer.
A mere 7.9% of OKC’s plays involved a Steven Adams pick and roll in this series. That’s not even one play per game (for the record they shot 50% on those plays, scoring 0.83 points per possession), compared to dudes like Nicola Vucevic (8.2 p&r plays per game), Joel Embiid (7.3), Rudy Gobert (4.9), Nikola Jokic (5.4) and basically all other prominent big men. Miles behind those guys. And that’s way down on his own mark of 2.4 pick and roll possession per game during the regular season that Steven Adams would get... leading to 1.29 points per possession and 68.9% shooting.
It goes deeper than that too because two seasons ago Steven Adams was the NBA’s leader in total screen assists and points from screen assists. 4.9 screen assists per game. Rudy Gobert is the king of this stat but he played twenty fewer games than Adams in 2017-18... he woulda bossed him with his 6.2 screen assists per game but so it goes. Adams dropped significantly in 2018-19 with 3.4 screen assists per game but he bounced back up to 4.8 per game in this 2019-20 season.
Playoff basketball is a different beast though. You’ve got these individual matchups being analysed like made night after night with constant adjustments and while Rudy Gobert has put up a monstrous 7.9 SA/G in Utah’s seven game series defeat to Denver... Steven Adams had just eight screen assists in total. Barely even one per game.
For whatever reason it was not a part of OKC’s offence. Just wasn’t in the gameplan. That’s not Steven Adams’ fault at all, he’s only doing what the coach is asking him to do. The dude did get 2.3 post ups per game from which he shot a more than decent 61.5%, which isn’t quite Jokic efficiency but it’s better than most. But the pick and rolls and the screen assists... not what the coach was looking for with these matchups.
4) Houston’s Defensive Activity
Houston traded away Clint Capela mid-season to go full small ball. PJ Tucker is their primary centre, a fella who stands at a mere 6’5. Jeff Green is his backup, only slightly taller. It’s a bit of a revolutionary system and what it allows for is the Rockets to roll out five defenders at once who can all switch and guard different positions at the drop of a dime. PJ Tucker is so crucial to that. He led the first round in charges taken which alone tells you how well he does when he’s faced with a driving guard.
That defensive flexibility gave OKC absolute fits in the first couple games. As the series went along they figured out a few ways to get around it all, with Dennis Schröder playing a big role in that with his speed on the drive giving Houston less time to react. But for sure that Houston defensive scheme was the secret to their success in so many way... even right down to the final plays of the series with that James Harden block.
The trade-off is that they’re massively undersized so no surprises that the Thunder were the top rebounding team in the first round. Steven Adams averaged above his season numbers on the boards and especially in the last few games he found a way to haul in those offensive rebounds which are so much a part of his reputation. Certain things like that, there’s nothing Houston can do about it. Adams is seven inches taller than Tucker so when the ball is in the air he’s gonna get a hand to it. It’s an accepted sacrifice. But you can do certain things to limit the damage there and one of the major ones was putting numbers in the paint to prevent the ball from coming into Adams. Here’s an example...
Chris Paul tries to post up Adams but Danuel House rushes in (leaving Lu Dort open, but timing it perfectly) to step in front and steal the ball. This kind of thing didn’t happen too often but with Houston’s really active defenders, including Harden when he was zoned in, that’s because generally they’d already been put off trying to make that pass in the first place. Quick and rotating defenders are a menace for any big man, Steven Adams is no exception.
5) Kept Off The Boards (Sort Of)
Then flip it to the other end to get the rebound numbers in some context, PJ Tucker was the opposing five who Adams spent the majority of his time guarding. Adams was on Tucker more than twice as many minutes as any other player and as it happens PJ Tucker is one of the league’s very best players at knocking down corner three-pointers. When that’s the case you’ve got a fella like Adams, a very good rebounder and box out merchant, having to stand out in positions like this...
PJ Tucker literally did not take a single two-pointer with Adams as his primary defender. All triples. And to Adams’ credit he was usually able to get a hand up in his face and Tucker only shot 6/19 with Adams on him... whereas he shot 10/24 from three against everyone else.
But you’re also not gonna get a lot of rebounds from those positions. You’re also gonna get fewer boards as a big man in the paint when teams shoot as such a high volume from deep as the Rockets do... shoot from further away with more force and a flatter angle and the ball tends to bounce further from the rim if it misses. It’s another one of those incredible numbers, Steven Adams averaged 2.4 box outs per game but only 0.3 of them were at the defensive end. ZERO POINT THREE! Austin Rivers had a higher defensive box out average than that!
It’s not that Adams wasn’t trying, it’s that he was stuck out on the wing half the time... and when he wasn’t there was nobody left to box out. Like, ghost town.
Meanwhile nobody in that first round of the playoffs had more offensive box outs. Naturally, Adams was a unique force on those offensive boards with 34 of them in total, 4.9 per game. Both leading the NBA in the first round. You certainly can’t complain about him having the fifth most rebounds per game in the NBA playoffs so far, not at all. But it’s worth pointing out that he would have gotten a whole lot more but for the schemes of Mike D’Antoni and the Houston Rockets.
The Future Of The Thunder
Soak that all in for a second. This guy was an undrafted free agent and he came into these playoffs and absolutely balled out, playing suffocating defence on James Harden in particular. Harden being Harden, you can defend your arse off and he still steps back and gets a make-able shot off but Dort always made it hard for him. To be fair, Dort’s offence was a weakness for most of that series, not just his poor shooting (until game seven) but also his decision making. But for a rookie... goddamn. OKC’s got a real player there.
Darius Bazley also came in and gave the Thunder a reliable enough option as one of their main dudes off the bench, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had some inexperienced moments in game seven but he also made some massive shots throughout the series and was mostly able to recreate his reliable scoring from the regular season in the playoffs, he’s a future All Star on his current trajectory, no doubt about it. Right there you’ve got three players on their rookie scale contracts for the next couple years and that kind of salary cap efficiency is huge for any team – especially since young players are going to develop at a quicker rate with more exposure to these kinds of high-intensity playoff situations.
That’s an envious position to be in for a team that has as many future draft picks as they do. Yet whether this particular incarnation of the team is sustainable... dunno. Chris Paul has two more years (including a player option) at a hefty salary but he’s maybe not so untradeable any more after his brilliant 2019-20 season. Dan Gallinari is a free agent now. He’ll have his suitors. Nerlens Noel and Andre Roberson are also off contract. And not to stoke the trade rumour flames too much but Steven Adams and Dennis Schröder are both entering the final year of their current contracts. Not a lot coming their way in draft picks this time around either, they’ll pick at 25 and 53 and that’s it unless they make some moves.
So... it’s gonna be another fascinating offseason.
BOX SCORES
GAME 1 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 123-108):
28 MIN | 17 PTS (7/13 FG, 3/6 FT) | 12 REB (4 OFF) | 2 AST | 2 PF | 1 TO
GAME 2 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 111-98):
30 MIN | 8 PTS (4/4 FG) | 11 REB (3 OFF) | 3 AST | 1 STL | 4 TO | 1 PF
GAME 3 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (W 119-107 OT):
35 MIN | 6 PTS (3/7 FG, 0/3 FT) | 13 REB (2 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 4 PF
GAME 4 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (W 117-114):
26 MIN | 12 PTS (4/5 FG, 4/6 FT) | 8 REB (4 OFF) | 1 AST | 3 TO | 1 P
GAME 5 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 114-80):
25 MIN | 12 PTS (6/8 FG, 0/2 FT) | 14 REB (8 OFF) | 1 PF
GAME 6 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (W 104-100):
31 MIN | 6 PTS (3/9 FG) | 14 REB (9 OFF) | 1 AST | 1 STL | 4 TO | 1 PF
GAME 7 vs HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 104-102):
34 MIN | 10 PTS (4/6 FG, 2/3 FT) | 9 REB (4 OFF) | 1 BLK | 2 STL | 1 TO
SLAM DUNKS
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