If it was one of their weak points the previous season, the Thunder have made enormous progress in terms of 3-point skill this season. Even if Mark Daigneault's men are not those who shoot the most from distance (16th, 34.2 attempts on average per game), they did however display the best skill by far in the league in the regular season, at 38.9% overall success rate. behind the 39% of Lu Dortthe 42% ofIsaiah Joethe 37% of Chet Holmgren or the 43% of Jalen Williams…
Overall, the whole team shot very well from afar, the incessant “drive & kick” of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company sucking the opposing defenses into the paint, to offer open exterior shots.
A big drop in address
Except that one of the concerns for Oklahoma City in its conference semi-final against Dallas is that outside shots no longer go in. While they were still shooting at 38.7% from behind the 3-point line against the Pelicans, OKC players only posted 32.7% from distance in the five games against the Mavs.
The difficulties in the area of Josh Giddey (3/14) completely took him out of the five, but Chet Holmgren (5/20), Jalen Williams (5/16) and Lu Dort (11/34) also screwed up.
However, the Thunder and the Mavericks adopted a similar strategy in this series, by blocking the racket as a priority, even if it meant leaving space behind the 3-point line. Except that if PJ Washington managed to take advantage, with a cumulative 21/44 from afar over the series, this is not the case for the Thunder shooters.
“I'm going to be cautious in saying that I enjoyed a 92-point night. But I have the feeling that we ran into problems in attack in the last three games.” explains Mark Daigneaultabout Game 5 (lost) marked by the entry of Isaiah Joe into the major five, to the detriment of Josh Giddey. “I have the feeling that we managed to find some openings this evening. They were put in more uncomfortable situations. We forced them more to rotate. »
Jalen Williams frustrated by his lack of success
With Josh Giddey on the court, the Mavericks can make impasses which make their strategy of shielding the racket easier to implement. With the Australian on the bench, the Thunder can clear the field, and especially the Dallas defense… but the Oklahoma City shooters still need to punish.
At 10/40 from afar in Game 5, that wasn't the case, but the positions were more open than in previous games.
“I think we have found our style again”continues Mark Daigneault. “We made good progress offensively. There were times in Game 2, 3 and 4 where we felt like we were stuck offensively. We were stuck in their defense. This evening, I found that there was a lot more fluidity, “drive and kick”. It took us a few matches in this series to calibrate our game.”
But is it not too late, as Game 6 in Dallas will be played next night, Luka Doncic and his teammates having a golden opportunity, at home, to advance to the conference finals?
Facing a racket “very crowded”, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knows that victory in Texas will require far better skill, notably from Jalen Williams, his first lieutenant… who has not taken an outside shot in the last two games. And who blames themselves.
“A lot of it is because of me”concludes the winger, who is still only a sophomore. “I didn't make the shots I normally take. And I haven't done it since the beginning of the series. It is very frustrating. »
