The Thunder Just SCORCHED Minnesota’s Defense…

The Thunder Just SCORCHED Minnesota’s Defense…

Welcome to another hows and growls postgame breakdown today we’re talking about how Minnesota’s defense fell flat on its face against the Oklahoma City Thunder we’ve spent a lot of time talking about Minnesota’s defensive Excellence this season and rightly so but this was a really poor night on that

End for them and OKC made them pay with some fantastic offense the Thunder scored 132.0 points per 100 possessions in this game which is the second worst defensive performance the Timberwolves have produced so far this season and it ranks in just the 10th pertile for all games

Played across the entire season so far perhaps even worse the Thunder finished the game with a 71.1 effective field goal percentage the worst of the season for Minnesota and a number that ranks in the first percentile this season again it was both great offense and really bad defense so

Let’s take a look at how it went wrong for Minnesota right away you get a look at what’s going to be a consistent issue with switching Shay sets this screen here which should easily switch go and McDaniels but they bungle that cat’s low man help isn’t here and hren gets an

Easy dunk so the main issues at play here in this game are going to be those switches that low man recognition and then the off ball awareness for Minnesota and this is what I’m talking about when I say that off ball awareness HR is getting to work here and mik

Conley comes to double but there’s no cognizance of his man cutting through here when he turns his head here and then the low man help isn’t coming down here as well it’s a nice read from Chad and an easy bucket for giddy this really is the stuff the Timberwolves have been

Getting right over and over again so far this season again when go is out here trying to stop this Twan game towns has to be rotating down here to help protect the rim there might be a kick out three there but nobody wants to give up open

Looks at The Rim like this and let the team stroll into a rhythm like OKC did in this game and don’t get me wrong I am loving the way OKC are moving without the ball and pushing the pressure points of Minnesota’s defense but these are things that this number one ranked

Defense considers the basics and they just aren’t doing them in this game so here the Thunder set this back screen on the curl here and it’s got to be a switch McDaniels doesn’t recognize that and Dort ends up standing underneath the basket for another really easy bucket coming off some sweet offensive action

Again are they switching or are they staying here go and Cat need to Tor this out they end up messing it up instead someone needs to get back out here to Jaylen Williams instead they both linger in no man’s land and these buckets seem to be getting easier and easier and

We’re only 5 minutes into the game so Minnesota are going to change it up and try some Zone to stem the tide but it’s going to get even worse for them when the ball swings to the wing Nas Reed has to get up here and take away the wing

Three towns might have to bust the lung to x out to the corner but Reed can’t try and hedge in the Gap here because that’s going to give up that wide open three and I really do mean that if you don’t sell out to stop the first open

Shot the Thunder are going to make that shot this is the same Zone the same spot on the floor and once again Reed is standing here between two players rather than trusting that towns can get out here and help him that just means he’s leaving Isaiah Joe wide open and Joe is

One of the most deadly Shooters in the lead right now same hesitation from the defense same result for the offense if we’re being honest I’m not entirely sure what Reed is doing in this game right here he kicks M Conley out of the paint which is a good idea but then he chases

Out there anyway leaving his man under the rim here town is in his own world again and it’s another remarkably easy two points in the paint for the Thunder OKC shot 18 of 20 in the paint for this game which is crazy but it’s easy to see

Why when you watch some of these possessions so now they’re overc committing when SGA starts rumbling down hill here both towns and G dig down to take it away only one of those guys needed to rotate so that’s going to free up the corner and Shay is going to find

That open man if you give it to him on a platter there was just so much miscommunication in this game and OKC feasted on it every single time again Minnesota is in zone but somebody has to talk and somebody has to rotate either goar needs to get up out here or

McDaniels needs to get there himself they choose instead to watch on and Chad calmly walks into a one pass possession triple we’ve watched a ton of half court mistakes so far but the Thunder are also pretty great in transition and they found life pretty easy easy in this one

They force one of many turnovers here they’re out and running and the cross matching kills Minnesota Alexander Walker comes off Dort all the way over here even though Reed and Edwards are already on that side of the floor and that leaves Dort wide open running the

Flank he was on a heater in this game so that’s way too much space to afford him again it’s more of a semi- transition kind of possession here and sgaa is a Road Runner in these situations towns isn’t making any low man rotations like this one he’s not even really watching

Here and that means Shay is burning Kyle Anderson and then walting in for the layup again so we’re going to see one more droplet of misery here and it’s the Thunder going to that Spain league action that they go to you get D setting this ball screen and Joe setting the

Back screen here but Shay rejects the ball screen and Joe leaks out to the three-point line that leaves Jordan mclin standing here in sga’s PA but he leaves that post and follows Joey instead of stopping the ball and that gives gilas Alexander another super super easy layup again it’s a ton of

Respect to OKC for carving up the best rated defense in the league but there’s no denying this was an awful outing for that very same defense it’s also something we just haven’t seen a lot of this season so I am intrigued to see whether this is going to become more of

A trend or whether OKC really just caught Minnesota on a really off night thanks again for watching how and GRS Please Subscribe for more

We haven’t seen this very often this season.

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