Oklahoma City – The Thunder welcome the Pacers to town as the winners of three straight. This would be a matchup of two of the highest paced teams in the league.
What makes this game intriguing is that both teams had to figure out how to make play at a pace fast enough for them but slower than the other wants to play. Early on, it was the Pacers who controlled the pace and game. The Thunder defense was a little too soft to stop them and it looked like it was going to be a shootout.
The Thunder then started missing a lot of easy shots. Their offense throughout the opening quarter was something we haven’t seen from them in a while. The looks they were getting were pretty good but they just weren’t falling so they felt comfortable as long as they played solid defense until the shots started falling.
They continued to look sluggish on the offensive side as the Pacers continued to look very comfortable themselves taking a 16 point lead into the locker room. For the Thunder, shots just weren’t falling. That was the biggest adjustment they needed to make.
And they did.
Coming out of the locker room, they started to hit those same shots they were missing using a 14-4 run to get within 6. They had finally found their offense and this was now the game we thought we’d get. Until it wasn’t.
It was truly a weird game. The pace was there for both teams but either could really consistory get their offense going. The Thunder, after finding their offense, would go back to stretches of not being able to hit anything and the Pacers would just look very sloppy.
Have to give credit to both defenses who made things a little tough but it really seemed like both teams were sloppy and missing easy looks.
The Pacers however, were able to get their offense going a little in the fourth quarter while the Thunder couldn’t and that was enough to get a 121-111 win to end the Thunder three game winning streak.
Here are the reasons for the loss
Paint
It it not often the Thunder lose the paint by 20 points but that’s what happened against the Pacers. It’s not the fact that they lost the paint and it’s not even the fact that they lost by such a big margin, it’s how the Pacers got them.
The Thunder didn’t have much resistance for the Pacers getting into the pace and it caused problems for them all night. Yes, they had 23 fast break points and most, if not all of those were in the paint and it skews the numbers a little but there still wasn’t much resistance for them in the half court.
Indiana played the way OKC normally does by establishing themselves in the paint early and playing inside out after that. At no point in the game did the Thunder really try to adjust it seemed. Also have to credit the Pacers for being able to get a lot of size mismatches and then take advantage of those mismatches inside.
Pace
With two really fast paced teams, it was really important for one of them to control the speed. Both teams love playing fast so one needed to make the other uncomfortable with the pace of the game. That was the Pacers.
The Thunder just couldn’t match the pace the Pacers were playing at and it kind of tired them out. They needed to slow the game down just a little to make the Pacers uncomfortable. Hitting shots would have allowed them to do that but it was a night that they just didn’t have it.
It is a really good lesson for the Thunder and good for them to see something they haven’t seen much of this season though.
Physicality
The physicality for the Thunder didn’t seem to be there against the Pacers. In fact, the Pacers were the much more physical team and the Thunder didn’t really do a good job of trying to match that.
This goes hand and hand with the pace and them getting to the paint so easily. If the Thunder played with more physicality, the Pacers likely aren’t able to get into the paint as much and they aren’t able to play as fast.
It was just an uncharacteristic night for the Thunder.
The Thunder were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who had 30 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. It was his 48th 30 point game of the season and that passes Kevin Durant for the most 30 point games in a season in Thunder history. Lu Dort added 18 points while Chet Holmgren added 15 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks, and Josh Giddey adding 15 points and 7 rebounds. Cason Wallace added 11 points and 3 rebounds off of the bench.
The Thunder will host the Dallas Mavericks the next time they take the court on Thursday night.
