Kiwi Steve in the NBA #10: Hustle

BOX SCORES

at MILWAUKEE BUCKS (L 98-94):

34 MINS | 20 PTS (9/11 FG, 2/2/ FT) | 8 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 3 BLK | 3 PF

at CHARLOTTE HORNETS (L 123-112):

36 MINS | 18 PTS (8/10 FG, 2/2 FT) | 12 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 5 PF

at HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 118-116):

29 MINS | 8 PTS (2/6 FG, 4/4/ FT) | 8 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 2 PF

vs DENVER NUGGETS (W 121-106):

31 MINS | 16 PTS (7/10 FG, 2/3 FT) | 6 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 4 BLK | 2 TO | 3 PF

at CHICAGO BULLS (W 109-94):

36 MINS | 22 PTS (11/14 FG) | 5 REB | 2 AST | 1 BLK | 1 TO

vs MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES (W 103-95):

39 MINS | 12 PTS (6/13 FG, 0/1 FT) | 8 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 2 PF

NEXT WEEK

at MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES, Saturday 2.00pm (NZT)

at SACRAMENTO KINGS, Monday 3.00pm (NZT)

at LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS, Tuesday 4.30pm (NZT)

at GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS, Thursday 4.30pm (NZT)

at MILWAUKEE BUCKS (L 98-94)

For whatever reason, Steven Adams tends to do his best scoring early in halves. Start of the first and start of the second, get the team off to a consistent start by establishing a presence down low before Russell Westbrook takes over later in things and the outside scorers get to work. Sometimes you see him doing what he does in the post and wonder: ‘what’s if they just gave him, like, 15-10 shots one day…?’ Hopefully then you were watching as they took on the Bucks.

Yeah mate, Steve got busy quickly in this one. Not only did he score on the first possession, but he drew a foul which he converted for two more points on the second and dished an assist to Russ for three on the third. Before long the Thunder were 16-6 up and Adams had 8 of the first 11 of them.

Of course it had to come to an end though, a couple of fouls meaning that Stevie sat for the last 2:21 of the first quarter, though he was already well on the way to a career night. Also, that’s about when he normally checks out anyway. OKC were up 27-17, a lead which was cut to 8 points at the end of the quarter and then 5 when Adams and Westbrook returned in the second.

By now Russ had gotten busy scoring too, logging 18 by the half compared to Adams and his paltry 16 points, Thunder up 56-50. Steven Adams was still yet to miss a shot or a field goal in the game and his team shot 61.1% from the field in the half. The Bucks struggled against him, John Henson perhaps not the finest option at centre, and so they quickly pivoted to a smaller line-up. It’s a credit to Adams that he can still foot it against shorter, quicker players, though it did help Milwaukee stay with it. After the initial burst it was actually a pretty tight game. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 17 points at the half, shooting 7/11 despite some heavy attention from Andre Roberson. He started 0 for 2 as well.

Not sure you used that one right, Katzy. One shows top form, one does not perform it.

OKC had success because they were scoring. When the shots stopped dropping in the third, the Bucks got rolling. They were already rebounding well and the last thing that Billy Donovan would have wanted to see was Giannis in transition but that’s what he got as the Greek Freak had 24 and 10r with a full quarter to go. Meanwhile Milwaukee were stopping that same thing from happening by pressuring Russ. Not only did the Thunder go without a field goal for over eight minutes but the Bucks ended the 3Q on a 10-0 run, outscoring them 29-16 in the frame and taking themselves a lead. Also you know that thing about the thunder being reliant on Westbrook? Well he only score 6 in the third quarter, shooting 0/8 from the field. Good thing for a bit of this to stay in touch then:

That eight minute field goal drought began after an Adams two-pointer and ended with a Semaj Christon layup… dished up by Steve at the top of the key. 18 points, 2 assists and 4 rebounds through three. He’d add a few to the main categories in the final quarter but not quite enough. His one bucket in the fourth came from a second effort rebounding his own miss and whenever he got near that hoop there was a crowd all around him. Also, after a run of killer games, Enes Kanter was kept to only 2 points, 1/6 shooting.

The Thunder were in it all the way, they just couldn’t score that final bucket when it mattered. Giannis was magnificent, Russell was really off his game. RW missed his last seven three point attempts and he wasn’t even close to a triple double here, going 30p/7r/6a… okay ‘not close’ for Russ is different than ‘not close’ for most people. Antetokounmpo didn’t really score in the last period of play though he did a fine job creating and after John Henson put the Bucks up in the final minute, Westbrook fumbled the ball out of bounds and Malcolm Brogdon made a couple of clutch free throws. Boom, game over.

Adams was their best player though. He never got close to the offensive production of the first quarter but he played well for 34 hard minutes… even if the thing he’ll remember most is probably the moment late on when he accidentally tipped a rebound away from a teammate on a key possession. Oops. Either that or getting goose stepped by Jabari Parker:

Daily Thunder: “Adams was an absolute bully down low to start the game. He had a first quarter career high 12 points and couldn’t be stopped on the pick and roll.  The Bucks started to bring a double, and the Thunder seemed to go away from the big men in the second half.”

at CHARLOTTE HORNETS (L 123-112)

They often talk about making free throws as one of the major ways of closing out a game. Try making 40 of them, that ought to work right? And it did, as the Hornets got to the line 49 total times compared to only 23 for the Thunder – which helped turn a 105-104 game with 3:59 to play (Vic Oladipo closing the gap with a three pointer there) into one that the Hornets ended up claiming by 11 points. Charlotte scored the next 9 points and scored their last 11 all from the charity stripe while OKC clanged three ball after three ball trying to make up the distance.

A shame that it finished like that, as it had been a pretty competitive game. Charlotte were up as many as 10 points early in the third but OKC came back to lead by a point at the third quarter break. This might be a little biased but the highlight play of it all was this thumping dunk from Stevie, if you listen closely you can still hear the rim wobbling.

But while Westbrook was able to log 33 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists, he also shot a pretty awful 10/31, 2/12 of those from deep (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist really lived up to his defensive maestro status in guarding him), and Victor Oladipo’s 7/20 FG wasn’t all that much better. He scored 20 points on 20 shots, while Steven Adams scored 20 points on 10 shots. Also Enes Kanter chipped in with 22 off the bench, he’s been playing great recently. Problem was Nic Batum was unstoppable at the other end for 28 and Cardiac Kemba Walker did his usual thing too for 20 points and 9 assists. You could say that Adams well on Roy Hibbert (3 PTS, 0/1 FG, 2 REB in 20 MINS) but Frank Kaminsky made up for a lot of that with 17 points off the bench. All of those came in the first half, by the way.

One of the stranger occurrences was when Westbrook threw the ball back to a ref at a timeout, only to find the ref not paying attention. The ball hit the ref in the side of the head and Westbrook copped a technical. He was not at all happy about it either. A much less abnormal tech was assessed to Roy Hibbert for jawing at Kiwi Steve. Not the first and won’t be the last.

Also, Enes Kanter got revenge for the loose ball tech a few days later… coincidentally at one of the refs who was on this same crew (though not the one with the sore cranium).

Daily Thunder: “Steven Adams has really been playing well. He had 18 and 12 tonight, which included 8-10 shooting. Since going 1-9 against Memphis, he’s 21-26 in his last three games. His rebounding is up, his confidence is growing, and he’s finishing. It’s good.”

Thunder Digest: “Steven Adams started 8-of-8 from the floor a night after starting 9-of-9. He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds in 36 minutes.”

at HOUSTON ROCKETS (L 118-116)

The last time they played the Rockets, Westbrook was a missed three from the Thunder winning the game and this one was equally as close. No shocker given the teams that were involved that it saw plenty of points too, hell OKC were up 38-33 after only one quarter. Westbrook was busy, Adams scored 6 points in the opening frame and that was that. But while the Rockets stayed hot, the Thunder did not and they blew this one out in the second.

Adams would only make one more bucket all game, he was uncharacteristically off his game given his recent form, missing shots he’d usually make, and although Oladipo and Kanter had their moments, this was mostly on Westbrook’s shoulders. Houston were up as many as 18 points, Eric Gordon scored 22 off the bench and every HOU starter scored in double figures. It really didn’t look pretty for a while there.

And then the comeback happened. A 14 point deficit at the start of the fourth was clawed into and with a 20-7 run, OKC were right back in it. They did that with Russ mostly on the bench too, top stuff. About time too because Westbrook had scored 40 of OKC’s 83 points in the first three quarters. He’d add 9 more in the last one for 49 all up, two shy of his season best, making 8 triples from 15 attempts. One of those triples made it a 113-114 game. Oladipo added three more soon after and the Thunder led by two with less than two minutes remaining.

The Rockets had won 25 of 28 games when leading after three though. James Harden made a pair of free throws to tie it up and then both teams missed chances to get out on top. Russ from 16 feet… nope. Ariza from three point range… nope. Gordon’s layup, Westbrook’s jumper, Gordon from deep, Harden’s blocked three (shout out Andre Roberson, who had a strong one)… all no good. Then with five seconds to go Westbrook had a solid look from the outside but he missed. Just missed, and Nene got free with Harden double teamed, Jerami Grant fouled him and Nene made both FTs. Enes Kanter couldn’t score the Hail Mary alley-oop out of the timeout and that was that, another close loss to Houston.

WTLC: “Steven Adams...remember that guy? The guy who has been shooting over 60% since December and in the past 3 games shot a combined 21-26 from the floor? The guy who was going up against a 6’9” 34-year old center? That guy got 6 shots tonight. Billy D, pick up your phone. You have some extremely irate Kiwis on line 2.”

vs DENVER NUGGETS (W 121-106)

With OKC having so few home games this month, the ones they do get they really need to win if they’re gonna stay above water in the playoff seedings. You really, really don’t wanna be finishing seventh or eighth with the Warriors and Spurs there waiting. So home to the Nuggets and coming off three straight losses, all on the road, this was a crucial one.

And they got the job done fairly comfortably, believe it or not. This was a very close game for a long time but after a few Dan Gallinari free throws had this poised at 76-73 to OKC in the third, Steven Adams dunked from a Russ assist and the following few minutes saw the Thunder on a 12-0 run. It was never again a one possession game.

Following his 8 triples against Houston, Westbrook had 7/12 in this game, with four of them coming in the fourth just to keep things at an arm’s reach. He scored 32 with 17 boards and 11 assists – count it at 17 triple doubles for the season. Steven Adams was back in business with 16 points against finishing well at the rim and oh look Cameron Payne finally made his season debut after all his injury woes. Of course that also meant a season debut for Russ and Cam’s pre-game dance-off.

Wilson Chandler scored 24 off the bench for Denver, who made it five defeats in a row. Those poor buggers are getting slaughtered on defence. It also doesn’t help when their starting point guard, Emmanuel Mudiay, is kept scoreless from nine shots in 26 minutes. They definitely missed Nikola Jokic who was sick, Steven Adams no doubt keen on that, though Josef Nurkic shot 5/14 himself for 11 points so the Stache Bros surely won the low-down contest.

Billy Donovan: “Establishing the low post has helped us offensively. It's helped generate offense for our post guys and our perimeter guys. We need to continue to do that.”

WTLC: “In a pivotal third quarter, Westbrook continued his effective all-around performance. Though more importantly, the tenacious Thunder defense re-emerged. OKC held the Nuggets to 7-24 FGA. Offensively, the tandem of Westbrook (8 pts) and Steven Adams (9) combined to bring OKC an 85-73 lead with 2:40 remaining in the period.”

Daily Thunder: “Steven Adams was superb tonight with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal. He’s so efficient on offense and important to what this team does defensively. He bothered Nurkic all night and kept him to an inefficient 5-of-14.”

at CHICAGO BULLS (W 109-94)

At the end of a tough slog of a week and with another one on the way (after they host the Grizzlies, who are very good by the way, the Thunder have six road games in a row. They don’t play a home one for a span of 16 days), it’s nice to bank a couple of relatively straightforward victories.

The Bulls are a bit of a mess, realising recently that perhaps Rajon Rondo isn’t the answer in the NBA of 2016 where the best point guards all score like champs and pace is a pretty important thing. So Rondo’s been benched in favour of Michael Carter-Williams, himself hardly a prototype, and of recent times they’ve been a fair distance better… though they had Jimmy Butler dragging his heels through illness for this game and that was all the invitation the Thunder needed to storm towards a road win.

A strong second quarter highlighted a really fine performance from OKC, who were up 89-67 after the third. They scored big in the paint and shot at 56.6% for the game, while Butler had only 1 points, shooting 0 of 6. They didn’t just sub him out of the game after the third, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg sent him home to rest. Some proper guts from him. Chicago did get as close as 10 points in the third but then OKC pulled away again, credit you know who, as usual (Answer: Russell Westbrook).

ESPN: “The dynamic point guard threw an alley-oop to Adams and then found the center for a layup. Westbrook set up Andre Roberson for a 3-pointer and a cutting dunk. Kanter added a driving layup with 54 seconds left, helping Oklahoma City to an 89-67 lead after three.”

Hey but Russ didn’t top score in this game. Nope, for the first time in his career it was Steven Adams coming out on top for his team, scoring 22 points on 11 of 14 shooting. Huge offensive night for that lad and he shared it with his Stache Bro as well – Enes Kanter adding 20 off the bench (9 of 11 FG). Combined the Bros shot 20 of 25 for 42 points, bloody hell.

Erik Horne/NewsOK: “By the break, Kanter and Adams were a combined 12-of-15 for 26 points. Adams reached 20 points for the fifth time this season. Entering this season, Adams had never scored 20 points. Kanter had three assists, his most in a game since Nov. 20. The two scored 20 points each in the same game for the second time ever (Dec. 25 vs. Minnesota) Kanter said he’s playing with the most confidence of his six-year NBA career. It’s showing in his passing, from his assist to Adams to the Russell Westbrook-esque bounce pass on the break.”

Russ still scored 21 but he settled in with 14 assists, while Dwyane Wade was the best for the Bulls with 22 of his own. This was a new career high in made field goals for Kiwi Steve as well. Cowabunga.

Daily Thunder: “Stache Brothers, More Like Field Goal Percentage Brothers. Oklahoma City is the only team with a pair of teammates in the top 10 in field goal percentage. Among qualified players, Steven Adams ranks fifth in the NBA at 61% and Enes Kanter ranks eighth at 57%. When accounting for volume, Adams and Kanter rank first and third, respectively, among players with at least 300 shot attempts. I think maybe it’s time to give the “Splash Brothers” moniker to more deserving players–the Thunder’s Stache Brothers.”

Daily Thunder: “The Stache Bros strike again. Steven Adams led the Thunder in scoring with 22 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block. Watching him and Robin Lopez wrestle in the post was pretty entertaining. He was also able to throw down a few nice dunks tonight and really forced Chicago to try to clog the paint, which left shooters for OKC wide open. He was 11-of-14 for the night and I’m still trying to figure out how he didn’t shoot a single free throw that whole time.”

WTLC: “Steven Adams is probably the Thunder’s 2nd best offensive player. But you should have known that already. The Bulls, without a big man either as tall or as strong as Adams, had no shot to slow him down, and for a change Russell Westbrook stayed with Adams for most of the game, leading to a plethora of shots at the rim for Funaki.”

vs MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES (W 103-95)

OKC played this lot a few weeks ago and got smashed. Westbrook got ejected without an assist to his name and, well you already know that No Russ is the worst nightmare for Billy Donovan. It didn’t help that Kiwi Steve got taught a lesson by Marc Gasol either.

So sweet as to see Stevie getting involved from the start. Three rapid buckets and OKC were on top before the corporates had even taken their seats. The second two buckets were a direct result of Marc Gasol picking up fouls. Their best player and an elite defender having to play cautious? Yeah mate, let’s go straight at him.

He didn’t score in the second quarter but the Thunder padded their lead, taking a 55-44 scoreline into the sheds. After that 0-for last time against the Grizz, Russ had 8 assists at the break, not the worst bounce back. Chandler Parsons was doing the most of the scoring for Memphis.

Things got a little sloppy after the break though. Having scored his first attempt, Adams had a couple more goes in the post and couldn’t score, not able to get position with his shimmies and having to settle for longer flip shots which didn’t land. A few at the other end meant that Memphis were able to close it to six points, time for a timeout. But he did block Tony Allen, making it six games in a row with a shot blocked. And when JaMychal Green missed a three that woulda meant the lead, Adams was able to get a couple offensive boards (one off his own shot) in a very physical post tussle for a three-point play (though he missed the FT). Dipo banked a three next chance.

Obviously that wasn’t the end of it, both teams traded momentum blows. But then some magnificent hussle from Adams, getting back in transition to keep Mike Conley from an easy layup and then blocking his shot on the edge to set up an Oladipo triple in the corner to make it 93-86 with 73 seconds left, went and pushed what could have been a 2 point lead out to a 7 point lead. Huge swing right there, Kiwi Steve with heaps to do with it. Arguably a decisive swing in fact.

Daily Thunder: “That was special stuff from Adams, with shades of Game 2 in San Antonio coming from it. His awareness, hustle, discipline and talent was all obvious in it. And in a lot of ways, it quite possibly saved the Thunder from what would’ve been a difficult loss. Conley finishes that and it’s a two-point game with a minute left and the Thunder (Westbrook) would be required to execute something of value in a big moment. Instead, the Thunder had a seven-point cushion, and just had to dig in enough to get it finished.”

Badabing, badaboom… Thunder go on to win it 103-95. 24p/13r/12a for Westbrook, mark that as TD #18 while Enes Kanter missed a few shots and played some occasionally scratchy defence (doesn’t he always?) but was overall really good for 19 points and 13 rebounds. Steve missed a few shots as well, he was 6 of 13 and against Memphis you sorta have to expect that. They don’t find themselves in too many 130-128 shootout games. They play serious defence. The best comparison for Adams’ numbers is those of Marc Gasol who was held to 9 points and 7 rebounds, shooting 4/12. That’s a big tick on Steven Adams’ side of things (and a little to Kanter as well, who threw his body around).

Daily Thunder: “The Adams-Gasol battle was fantastic. It was like two polar bears wrestling over a dead seal.”

ODDS & ENDS

Welcome to Loud City did a thing examining how the Thunder’s transition defence has gotten so good, amongst the very best in the league. They chart fast break points while each player is on the court and look into a few different correlations, like that of offensive rebounding (which you might guess Adams features heavily in). Here’s a snippet of the fast break points thing, but read the whole lot if you’re interested it’s a clever piece:

“As expected, the top two performers are Adams and Roberson. These guys are the foundation of the defense, so it comes as no surprise that they lead the team. Close behind are Westbrook and Sabonis. While Westbrook isn’t known for getting back, the offense runs more smoothly with him on the floor, leading to oppositional fast-break opportunities.”

They also ran a thing about Steven Adams’ offensive growth which has way too many interesting moments to quote them all here, so just do yourself a favour and click here. One highlight though? This little pic:

There’s also a bit on Steve in here from Daily Thunder, examining Enes Kanter’s passing ability.

“Per stats.nba.com, the Thunder makes the second-fewest passes in the league per game (266.5). Toronto is last at 263.4. But the Thunder ranks fifth in the league in assist-to-pass ratio (8.1). Most of that efficiency can be attributed to Westbrook's nightly brilliance, but the bigs are emerging as more efficient passers as well.

On fewer touches per game than last season, Adams (45.3 tpg last year, 37.7 this year) and Kanter (44.0 tpg last year, 33.4 this year) have each increased their assist percentages, or percentage of teammate field goals they've assisted on while in the game. Adams assisted on 4.2 percent of field goals while in the game last season and is up to 5.7 percent this season. Kanter's jump has been even more drastic, from 3.2 percent to 7.4 percent.

“We helped on him learning where our players are, so that he would know his options and where to go if double teams collapsed on him,” Donovan said. “That's been where they have really improved.”

Daily Thunder: “Robin Lopez should just be traded to the Thunder somehow before the trade deadline. The Thunder don’t really have a need for another big, but Adams, Kanter, and Lopez need to be on the same team. There’s no doubt in my mind that they would instantly get along. For comedic reasons alone this should happen.”

This one’s titled: 5 REASONS WHY STEVEN ADAMS IS A TOP 5 CENTER, shout out to Thunder Digest. 

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Written by Nick Robinson On Tagged ,