mavsfan4ever said:
Got this from another thread, but I agree with all of it. So thought I'd copy it here.
Oladipo is completely terrible and Kanter is fine on offense, but should not see a single minute in a close game due to his defense.
Their second best offensive option is Steven Adams getting a seal/oreb for an easy layup after a russ drive and dish/miss.
Russ should probably pull up less or at least make sure someone touches his arm then flail so he gets more FTs like Harden, but its hard to nitpick when the the other options are so bad and hes being guarded so tightly.
Also, their dumbass coach played 12 guys last night and RUSS was +11 in the 41 min he played. If you can't hold onto an 11 point lead in 7 spare minutes then you're pretty ****ed no matter what. No reason that RUSS' performance should not have been rewarded with a win even though the 4th quarter was not efficient.
Good post. I thought they key stretch of the game was the three minutes Russ sat at the end of the third quarter. Usually that's when the Thunder would lean on Kanter to initiate offense, but he can't play (cuz the Rockets abuse him defensively) and the Thunder had no where to go. If not for a late-in-the-shot clock three from Oladipo, Thunder would have been shut out in that time frame. Rockets were able to cut a double digit deficit to three with ease.
Fourth quarter, Donovan didn't have much of a choice but to surround Russ with versatile defenders (Roberson, Grant and Singler (barf)) and hope Russ could carry the load offensively. The Rockets made some nice adjustments on D and Russ settled for too many contested jumpers.
Overall, I was very impressed with how the Thunder played the first three quarters. Donovan made the adjustments he had to make personnel-wise and the team played very hard (beat the Rockets to loose balls and controlled the boards).
Still think Rockets in 5. That was probably the best chance the Thunder will have to win a game in Houston.