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Tag Archive - Thabo Sefolosha

NBA Playoffs Lakers-Thunder Game 5 Recap: They Crush Your Head

April 28, 2010 in by with 6 Comments

We knew they had it in them.

It’s been pretty obvious the last couple of months that if the Lakers wanted to play basketball the intelligent way then they would have a lot more games like this. Instead, the Lakers have been all over the place. They’ve been blaming their struggles on injuries and a lack of rhythm instead of showing some heart and fortitude on defense to go along with smarter shot selection on offense. We’ve been waiting to see them take advantage of the length that nobody else can match, rather than chucking up 20-footers because it’s the easy way out.

If you’re wondering how the Lakers dominated this game against a Thunder team that seemed ready to shock the world or surprise the league or show that nobody believed in them or proved the doubters wrong or win some more basketball games then you should look no further than the symbolic and definitive 10-0 run the Lakers used to start the game and build an insurmountable lead:

- First play of the game, the Lakers move the ball around the perimeter until they get it back to Derek Fisher on the left wing. By the time the ball gets back to Fisher, Andrew Bynum has muscled Nenad Krstic into the middle of the key. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Fisher throws an errant entry pass that Bynum attempts to save. The result is a turnover with a pass out of bounds.

- The Thunder come down and run a little screen down on Durant in the post to allow him to come up to the elbow and launch a jumper. Ron Artest does a good job of getting around the screen quickly enough to fly at Durant to contest the shot. The result is a missed jumper and a defensive rebound for the Lakers.

- Lakers work the ball to Pau Gasol on the left baseline. Pau promptly takes Jeff Green into the low block then drop-steps to the baseline for that unstoppable left-handed hook. That’s twice in two possessions the Lakers have gone to a post play. They’re up 2-0.

- The Thunder work the ball into Durant just above the low right block. He takes a quick but contested fadeaway jumper over Artest for the miss.

- Derek Fisher gets the eventual rebound after a failed tip-dunk attempt by Thabo and races up the court with the ball. He takes advantage of the Thunder’s continually inept transition defense by getting into the lane. However, he misses the runner.

- Russell Westbrook gets the ball off the Krstic board and pushes the ball back up the court. He attacks Ron Artest who plays solid defense by standing his ground and using his size advantage to cause a jump ball.

- Next play gives Kobe the ball in the right corner. As Kobe drives the baseline and attracts the attention of the Thunder help defense, Bynum flashes right through the lane from the left side. Kobe throws a bad pass that sails out of bounds but again the Lakers try to get points inside.

- Ensuing possession the Thunder drop the ball into Jeff Green inside against Artest. Green drives towards the baseline and puts up a terrible runner against Andrew Bynum. Against most other defenses, Green probably scores the basket or gets fouled but against Bynum, he just can’t get past his size.

- Kobe misses a wide-open spot-up three-pointer (three dashes in a row!) and then contests a jumper by Westbrook as he fights around a screen. We’ve now played two minutes and the Thunder really haven’t had a quality shot other than the first missed shot by Durant.

- Fisher grabs the long rebound, takes it right up the court and gets a fairly easy layup off of a little hesitation move against Westbrook. Fisher took advantage of the one-on-one situation because even though Thunder had the 4-2 advantage defensively, nobody properly raced to the key to provide Russell with some help defense. 4-0 Lakers.

- Thunder run a pick-and-pop play on the right side of the floor that gets Krstic a wide-open jumper. He misses it and the Lakers take the ball back up the court. Bynum takes Krstic to the middle of the key and then pretends to go set a back pick on Jeff Green. At the same time, Kobe drives down the right side of the floor in transition and forces Krstic to step up. Bynum slips the screen and catches a nice alley-oop pass from Kobe for the dunk. 6-0 Lakers.

- OKC comes down and runs a dribble hand-off play to get Thabo Sefolosha a jumper. I’m sure that you’re shocked they would run that play for him and amazed that it didn’t work.

- Cross-court passing and a laser from Artest to Gasol in the post gets Pau good position to work his way into the middle of the key and put up a right-handed half hook. Clanks front iron. Thunder push the tempo and get Thabo a layup that is promptly blocked by every member of the Lakers and Jack Nicholson.

- Lakes try to work the ball into Bynum again to maximize the mismatch with Krstic. Krstic fronts Bynum on the left block so the Lakers move the ball back to the top of the key as Bynum reverse pivots to create an easy lob over the top inside. Bynum lays the ball in and it’s 8-0 Lakers.

- Durant gets the ball in an iso situation with Kobe guarding him on the right side. As he faces up and tries to create a little space, Kobe steals the ball from him. Fisher gets the ball in the middle of the floor and dribble to the right side. At this point, Gasol has raced down the middle of the floor and set up on the lower right block. Bynum is trailing the play and makes a B-line right down the middle of the key. Fisher whips a pass into Gasol who drops a perfect bounce pass to the cutting Bynum for another dunk. 10-0 Lakers, four minutes into the game.

Let’s take a quick review of what happened in these plays. The Lakers tried to get a scoring opportunity nine times to open the game with just one jump shot attempt (which was an open three by Kobe that missed). They also used smart defense to get the Thunder to shoot low-percentage jumpers. When the Thunder actually got the ball inside, it was either a jump ball or a blocked shot. The Lakers knew they had the size advantage and they used it early.

So why doesn’t this happen every game? Why do the Lakers get lazy? Why do they make things harder for themselves?

They had 58 points in the paint during this 24-point demolishing of the Thunder. That’s 32 more points inside than Oklahoma City scored. And it’s something they can do with their size. Also, something they can do with their size is defend. When the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men are in the game, the perimeter defenders can play so aggressively. They know they have backup if they get beat. This allows the Lakers to have an easier time forcing turnovers. By the way, they scored 21 points off of the 17 Thunder turnovers.

Again, I ask you – why don’t they ALWAYS play like this?

The problem is that there is nobody in the West to challenge this team. Sure, the Thunder are giving them a good run and the Spurs look like they might be showing flashes of the decade dominant team we are used to. But nobody can realistically make the Lakers pay four times in seven games.

They can win when they have to. When they play like this, they’re a despicable affront to everything we love about sports. But without someone to keep them honest, how do you teach them the lesson to get them to change?

It’s like they’re heading down the path that the 2006-2008 Detroit Pistons showed us. They only played tough, hard-nosed basketball when they had to. But they ran into problems in their own conferences that ended up breaking their will. The Lakers don’t have that wake-up call. Nobody in the West scares them and rightfully so. There is no check and balance for the Lakers.

So they’ll go on coasting through the playoffs and there is nothing anybody can do about it. When they get to the NBA Finals, they’ll finally have a true test in either the Cavs or Magic. Even then, will it matter?

This is not the great team we were spoon-fed with dreams of 70 wins this past October. They’re just good enough and winning games whenever they feel like it.

NBA Playoffs: Thunder Are Learning How To Walk Even If They Keep Hurting Themselves

April 21, 2010 in by with 2 Comments

Progress.

A little over three weeks ago, I was playing some pickup hoops with some of my friends. It was a little windy out and I was having a bad day shooting the ball. It probably would have been a bad day shooting the ball even without the wind. Something was just off. So mired in a shooting slump, I decided that the only way for me to score and make plays was to take the ball to the hoop.

On one play (and my last play for a while), I drove the baseline with my left hand. As I got under the basket, I tried to stop without warning in the hopes that the guy guarding me would slide past me just enough for me to sneak a layup attempt towards the hoop. As it so happens, the inside of my right foot buckled and rolled under my ankle. I had never rolled my ankle that way before – it had always been the traditional way of the outside of my foot playing limbo with my ankle. But this time, we decided to try something new.

Since then, I’ve been fairly hobbled and hoping to make progress. I figure I won’t be completely healthy until I’m able to slide a shoe on my right foot without the use of my hands and without any pain. Recently, I’ve been able to start driving a car again and I can pretty easily walk up the stairs in my house. I just can’t slide that shoe on or walk down stairs without feeling an uneasy discomfort that gives me a lot of trepidation with my next movement.

But I’m making progress day by day with an extra step here and some extra weight put on my foot there.

You could say the Oklahoma City Thunder made progress with the three-point loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night. They took what was for the most part a frustratingly mediocre game in the first part of this series and turned it into a two-point game with a Kevin Durant three-point attempt for a series tie heading back to Oklahoma. He didn’t make it. He clanged off the iron and eventually the Thunder had to settle for a missed Jeff Green three-pointer to try and send this game into overtime.

But the fact that they played horrible terrible HORRIBLE offense and yet still were within one big three-point shot from the league’s leading scorer has to count for something besides a second playoff loss. Everything at this point in this franchise-building project is a good lesson for future reference. In the first game, they let some of the role players like Derek Fisher and Andrew Bynum find ways to score the ball against them. In this game, they held everybody not named Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in check.

Kobe and Pau scored 64 of the Lakers 95 points on the night but the big part of those totals was the fact that the two Lakers stars combined for 40 of those points in the second half. The Thunder adopted the philosophy of let the stars have their nights and shut everybody else down. And it damn near worked. Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Ron Artest combined for a 9/38 shooting extravaganza. They just couldn’t stop Pau Gasol in the post or Kobe Bryant in the anything he tried to do in the fourth quarter.

But this was a good next step for the Thunder to make. Limiting the role players worked. Getting Kevin Durant to knock down some shots worked. Defending the paint worked (17 blocked shots). Holding your own on the rebounding battle didn’t work (49-37). Getting other guys outside of KD to hit shots didn’t work (17/48 for 35.4%). However, the youngest team in the NBA took the defending NBA champs down to a decent three-point look from the NBA’s leading scorer with 15 seconds left in the game and down only two on the road.

The Thunder aren’t sliding the shoe on that foot yet. But they’re starting to climb up the stairs.

Playoff Paroxi-Notes

- Thabo Sefolosha may have needed a rest. Or he may have needed a new jump shot. Or he may have needed to sit on the bench so he could scan the crowd for all of the Swiss celebrities (what up, Martina Hingis?). Regardless, I don’t understand how he didn’t see any time other than the final 1:16 of the fourth quarter. In a period in which Kobe Bryant went off for 15 points, it would have been good to have your best defender on the floor for at least half of that time.

Instead, Jeff Green was given the assignment of checking Kobe and it showed. Jeff Green is nice in theory but he hasn’t been great in application during the first two games of this series. I trust him guarding Ron Artest or Lamar Odom but certainly not Kobe Bryant. His first step is too slow. His second step is too slow. And by the time he recovers, Kobe is already figuring out which ridiculous shot he wants to get on SportsCenter. Kobe got whatever shots he wanted and got to the line nine times in the final period. I’m not saying Thabo would have stopped him but he did force him to start 6/16 from the field. There were better options no matter what the reason for sitting Thabo was.

- Ron Artest has made life a living hell for Kevin Durant. We all remember what happened in the first game in which it looked like Ron was using Durant as his personal ventriloquist dummy. And in this game, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference. Durant went to the free throw line fewer times and ended up committing eight turnovers in the game. At the same time though he just found a way to make shots. He seemed to take advantage of other players getting switched out to defend him, like when he baited Lamar Odom into giving him too much space on a three-pointer. When Artest was on him and he wasn’t turning the ball over, he made some ridiculous turnaround jumpers. Durant will not be stopped in this series and it’s foolish to think he can. Artest is doing the correct thing in making him work for everything he gets. This is one of the most impressive battles I’ve seen in a long time between two individuals.

- I don’t want to keep harping on mistakes Jeff Green has made but it would be nice for Thunder fans if he decided to show up for the rest of the series. He is now 6/23 in this series because he can’t knock down open jumpers.

- Serge Ibaka is a man. He’s a large, intimidating man. He had six points, five boards and seven blocks like it was nothing. He’ll struggle at times but this guy is going to be All-Star material some day.

- The two most successful ways for the Thunder to score in this game were off of isolation plays (56.3% FG) and in transition (41.7%). Other than that, they were pretty horrible on offense. A lot of this had to do with the open, spot-up jumpers they were missing. They made just 6/18 spot-up shots and with three of those makes and 13 of those attempts coming from behind the three-point line. With all of the good looks the Thunder are getting, it’s hard to say that the offense is THAT bad. At the same time, they can’t hit their threes so maybe it’s time to take those looks and drive it to the basket. (These stats courtesy of Synergy Sports – seriously go sign up and enjoy your summer with this stuff)

Backboard’s Shadow: Thabo Sefolosha

February 26, 2010 in by with 0 Comments

Thabo Sefolosha is a 25-year-old elder statesman.  He speaks three languages, has played professional basketball in four countries and is the George Washington of Swiss born NBA players.  Playing on the Oklahoma City Thunder, hands down the most likable team in the league, Sefolosha has comfortably nestled himself beside Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook as a fragment of the team’s burgeoning success.

On this young, charismatic group his job isn’t to tally points.  He doesn’t have plays called for him or have his teammates look to him when the shot clock is winding down. He scores less than the other four starters and rookie sixth man James Harden, he’s smart and like all effective role players knows his limitations. But he’s also loaded with talent and after signing an extremely organizational friendly contract extension at the beginning of the season, is an tremendously underrated piece of the Thunder’s future.

Players like Sefolosha are always needed by championship contenders.  Players who are trusted by their superstar teammate to do what their job is on a nightly basis. That glue guy who goes virtually unnoticed outside of his home city until the spring when they make three or four huge plays in a nationally televised playoff game.  Last season for the Lakers it was Trevor Ariza and in 2008 the Celtics had James Posey.  The Spurs had Bruce Bowen in Duncan’s shadow and Michael Jordan had Paxson during his first title reign.

In his 30 minutes of playing time a night, Sefolosha is a guardian.  A 6’ 7” guard who is paid to make his teammate’s lives easier (Thabo literally means “one who brings joy”) by not only assuming responsibility for the opponent’s most dynamic scorer but on the nights where that isn’t possible, he serves obediently as an effective help defender.  Durant says he’s one of the top three defenders in the game, but don’t take his word for it.

Traded from the Bulls for a first round draft pick at last year’s trade deadline, since coming aboard the Thunder’s team defense has been on the incline (or decline depending on how you look at it).  Last year their defensive rating was 20th out of 30, right now they’re currently 3rd. They were 23rd in opposing points per game, now they’re 7th. Defensive improvements like this can never be attributed to a single player, but his presence certainly helped.  He sticks superstars so his own doesn’t have to.  The Dwyane Wade’s, the Kobe Bryant’s, the Joe Johnson’s.  They are all his duty while Durant, Green and Westbrook are able to focus on putting the ball in the basket.

Sefolosha’s usage percentage is at a career low 11.1% and his scoring average is the lowest its been since he was a rookie.  That is to say when Oklahoma City is in possession of the basketball, Thabo Sefolosha isn’t asked to do much.  As a matter of fact he probably couldn’t comply if called upon.  His accuracy from deep has uncharacteristically fallen since entering the league. This might be due to the executive voices whispering in his ear that defense is what they pay him to play while jacking up shots will first send him to the bench and then out of town.  Kevin Durant is there to shoot and score.  It’s what he does exceptionally well; it’s his trademark.  Thabo Sefolosha’s is defense.

As far as American professional athletes go, Thabo is a rare breed. He puts his team ahead of himself and is aware of his spot on Oklahoma’s totem pole. He signed an exceptionally generous five year, 15.5 million dollar contract that shows loyalty and sacrifice.  Not to say he would’ve been granted Lebron money, but Sefolosha most likely took a pay cut when deciding to stay with Oklahoma City for such a long period of time. Sefolosha fits splendidly with the Thunder and in two or three years, when they’re knocking on the doors of a championship, expect him to make those three or four crucial plays to help knock that door over.

A Good Problem To Have

December 14, 2009 in by with 0 Comments

Does all of this mean that Harden is a better player for the Thunder than Thabo? Again, maybe. Now some individuals would scream, “Of course it does, look at the numbers!” and they’d have a pretty good argument. Harden is at least within striking distance of Thabo in steals, blocks and rebounds (the only ones Thabo is ahead of Harden in) and Harden is way ahead of Thabo in the others. But that being said, stats are notoriously lacking when it comes to defensive analysis and so much of what Thabo does will never be scored or quantified by a box score, so let’s try to keep a level head about all of this as we move forward. But in terms of an overall player, Harden is definitely a more complete player than Thabo. But that’s not what the issue is, or the question was, for this column. It is if Harden helps the Thunder win games more than Thabo does, and I just don’t think we can definitely know the answer to that question yet.

via Sunday Discussion – The Harden Hourglass | Daily Thunder.com.

Daily Thunder breaks down the Harden v. Thabo debate. They leave out the plus/minus numbers (which favor Harden) but do a good job of putting each in the context of the league standards.

Harden’s reputation as efficient makes sense. He’s productive when he’s on the floor. He doesn’t fade to the background, he’s active. Even if he’s not making a play, he’s working within the flow of the entire team. But having Thabo to rely on is a blessing. Rookies have such trouble with consistency, so having a veteran to provide a counter is invaluable in that regard.

It’s the slow acquisition of depth that’s helped OKC reach this point, along with Durant and Green’s development. Then you start to consider how good Harden could be in a few years and you begin to realize we’re seeing the adolescent stages of a powerhouse.