Oklahoma City’s Opportunities in the Paint Have Led to Efficient Offense

For the entirety of the season, Oklahoma City looked like an unbeatable machine. Even through injuries, the Thunder dominated competition and reached historic heights. Towards the end of the season, though, there were a few cracks in the armor. Most of those cracks revolved around Oklahoma City struggling against the zone defense.

The Thunder lost back-to-back games against Houston and Los Angeles right before the postseason began, and teams experimenting with zone have had success against this Thunder squad on multiple occasions. Dallas’s defensive gameplan last postseason was similar — condense the floor, heavy help, and make Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pass the ball.

Against Denver, the Thunder really struggled with zone on occasion. Christian Braun had some good moments as SGA’s primary defender, and the Thunder role players took a while to settle in. Now, as Oklahoma City looks to take a commanding 3-0 lead on Minnesota, though, it seems like this team has figured out its zone problems once and for all. So much so, that Minnesota has taken a step back on even thinking about running a zone.

The Thunder adjusted to the zone by committing to shots in the paint. From Isaiah Hartenstein’s push shot, to sticking Alex Caruso in the middle of the zone, every wrinkle from Oklahoma City has been efficient and effective.

Caruso has perfectly manned the middle of the zone offense, and Oklahoma City is throwing in different twists and turns to every set. When the ball reaches the middle of the zone, Chet Holmgren has had loads of success cutting from the baseline corner and finishing easy alley-oops.

The Thunder’s zone-breaking strategy on offense has been centered around getting points in the paint and working inside out. Oklahoma City’s 3-points volume dwindled a game ago, but the efficiency was sky high. The Thunder committed to slashing and backdoor cutting to find easy shots around the rim. The evidence is clear — in Game 1, Oklahoma City outscored Minnesota 58-44 in points in the paint. In Game 2, it was even more lopsided, with the Thunder taking the advantage at  54-to-20.

Even though Minnesota has size, this Thunder team has committed to attacking the paint. Yes, Oklahoma City has still needed role players to step up and hit open 3-pointers, but it has been a full on commitment to bust the zone and get easy shots. Two more wins, and it’ll all be worth it for this young Thunder team.