Thunders' Clutch Defense Turns Tide in Game Four Last Night

SportsGrid

Watch Thunders' Clutch Defense Turns Tide in Game Four Last Night - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00the incredible thing is as we entered the fourth quarter of last night's game

00:03the series was essentially pick the pacers up seven with a chance to go up 3-1 if they won

00:13that basketball game would have been minus 150 or so to win the championship there still would

00:19have been a lot of respect put okc's direction but instead they lose that quarter by 14 and now

00:29oklahoma city is minus 590 the biggest number since the pre-series so this is a bigger number

00:37than when the series was 1-1 with a lot of runway left and i think the big reason for that is when

00:43the series was 1-1 the pacers had home court advantage and two going to their building

00:49even if we see a game seven two of the three remaining games are in oklahoma city the question

00:56then it becomes a lot about how did okc do it how did they get themselves this victory and the

01:04short answer coach the defensive side of the basketball holding the pacers to 17 fourth

01:12quarter points six times in these playoffs the pacers have had a quarter of under 20 points

01:21think about how many games they played how many quarters that is that's incredibly impressive

01:24they again they have a very high floor but only two of those quarters have happened in the second

01:30half it's an offense that gets better as the game goes on and it was the first time coach they did

01:36not score at least 20 in the fourth quarter all postseason long the thunders defense stepped up

01:44with their season arguably on the line it stepped up on the line if you really took it i'm going to be

01:48more specific their defense at the three point line is what won in the game folks they were five of ten

01:56from three i'm sorry from two indiana in the fourth quarter it's a fact that they were held all of eight

02:01so when you get into that fourth quarter and you get guys like naismith who is usually a big shot guy

02:07fourth quarter big shot that he hit he goes off to miles turner had a game i do believe in game two

02:13when we knocked down a couple of threes uh maybe it's game one in the fourth quarter and i come back

02:17he went off to haliburton we talked about him making big shots he goes all three so you go all of eight

02:23from the free throw line and then you commit 10 fouls so at the end of the day it was the defense of

02:28oklahoma city but the ability of sga to draw contact draw fouls get to the foul line get eight free

02:36those i mean aaron nates with that two points and three fouls in the fourth quarter so i mean that

02:42that's wild like three fouls in the fourth quarter he took three shots had three fouls not really

02:47effective use of his minutes on the floor with 11 minutes and 16 seconds so to me it was the defense

02:53and it was sga who would look tired and exhausted in game number three in the fourth quarter play

03:0011 minutes 12 seconds looked really good in the fourth quarter this game but the key is and i always

03:05talk about this with star players is fourth quarter you get to the free throw line there's about a 20

03:10second delay before the first shot there's five six seconds between the second shot you get your

03:14rest and you get your points yeah and that's definitely i'm not i don't see the entire turning

03:19point of the game but as you said the the pacers offense is one that generally gets better as it goes

03:24as the game goes on and you know we've seen that time and time again and also i would say they get

03:29better as series goes on go on granted the first two series weren't super long for that you know take it

03:34for that what it is but for me it really comes down to this is the peak of the thunder defense

03:41of what we saw from that and at a certain point i'm concerned that the pacers defense won't be able

03:47to match it as and and objectively this was a horrible offensive game for the thunder oh my gosh

03:53yeah just absolutely terrible the three-point shooting was insane in 2025 sure even whether it's

03:58a preseason game a regular season game postseason game three of 16 is absolutely insane so if the

04:03thunder defense is this good right now and their offense was horrible and they still won the game

04:08what are we going to be expecting if their offense does at least find some regression to the mean when

04:13i'm talking about having an amazing offense even if they just shot average like we're talking about

04:16they would have won this game by 15 20 points

04:18you

Category

Transcript

Recommended