I’m old school. I genuinely am. Call me Mini Gran Torino is you will. There are certain axioms in the NBA I’ll always adhere to even in the Golden Age of Millenials. When I have two stars who are both making more than $25 million a piece and I have a chance to steal a road game with ten seconds left on the Smoothie King Center clock I’m drawing a play for one of those two dudes.
Given the fact Paul George of late has been playing better than pretty much anyone in the NBA minus perhaps Anthony Davis… as a coach I’m not drawing the picket fence play from Hoosiers. I’m looking square into Paul George’s eyes and saying this is what we do after you make the shot. Buddy isn’t taking this shot. I’m just that way.
But this wasn’t Hoosiers. This was Billy Donovan reminding us why it’s very rare for college coaches to make it big in the NBA. Ask Fred Hoiberg, ask John Calipari, heck—ask our own Lon Kruger.
Instead what Billy Donovan did was run the Chaos Play with Russell Westbrook executing it perfectly to get the most disappointing player on the Thunder roster the last shot on the road to try and remain atop the West.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a beautiful play. Only problem is the guy who got the open look didn’t really deserve this opportunity. Coming into tonight Alex Abrines was 31-97 (32%) shooting the three. He was 1-4 on the night before the miss. So what I’m saying here is why would I take that leap of faith at this moment in this situation. Why? It would be one thing if I looked at my bench and saw Big Shot Bob Horry. Not to be cruel…but Alex Abrines isn’t Big Shot Bob. Not even close.
Of course the shot clanked and then the Pelicans hit two free throws to ice a win which makes them a .500 team.
I could go on and on about how the Thunder were outrebounded 56-39 or how they committed 18 turnovers of how they shot 63% from the line. I could do all those things and they would be valid points as to why the Thunder lost this game. But in the end here’s what I know…Paul George didn’t shoot the ball on either of OKC’s last two possessions of the game. That somewhat bothers me because PG scored 25 points on the night going 9-17 from the field and 3-7 from behind the arc yet didn’t get a shot on those last two possessions.
On the other side, Anthony Davis was brilliant with a 44 point, 18 rebound double double. Billy Donovan allowed Jerami Grant to get in foul trouble trying to handle this impossible matchup. What I would have done is try Nerlen Noels on AD some. Why not? Why not give it a try. You can’t really go small with Davis and Randle paired together so why not give Noels some real minutes against the Pelicans. But again, this isn’t the SEC, these aren’t the Florida Gators. Just saying.
So in one fell swoop the Thunder fall to 17-9 and back to 3rd in the West only a half game out of 6th place. Such is the nature of the beast which is the NBA’s Western Conference.
Great game to watch. But in the end more evidence to support the notion this Thunder team won’t be dancing deep into the NBA’s playoffs if they can’t learn the basic axioms of what it takes to win an NBA championship.