As the great Pat Riley once said, “No rebounds, no rings.”
If the second-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (42-19) intend to take a shot at the NBA championship, they better start grabbing their boards.
One night after allowing Suns center Jusuf Nurkic catch With 31 rebounds, the Suns were dominated 55-38 by the Lakers on Monday night in a 116-104 loss in Los Angeles. A game before that, against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, the Thunder won 45-37.
While this alarming trend hasn’t stopped OKC from maintaining its winning momentum, it could cost the team in the playoffs, where the game slows down and each possession counts more. Thunder is last in the league in offensive rebounds allowed at 12.5 per game. In other words, they allow their opponents to make more than a dozen attempts to punish them for not completing a defensive possession.
This would explain why Mark Daigneault’s troupe allows 15.8 second chance points per game, which ranks No. 29 in the league. Conversely, since they only grab 8.7 offensive rebounds per game, the Thunder average just 10.9 second chance points per game, which also ranks 29th in the league.
At the end of the season, the Thunder are what they are. They likely missed the boat by not adding size and rebounding before the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Of course, the the acquisition of an experienced hand like Gordon Hayward could bode well in the playoffs, but the veteran swingman is averaging 2.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in his six outings as a member of the Thunder.
The Thunder’s lack of size is best highlighted by the fact that rookie Chet Holmgren is the only big receiving considerable minutes. After Monday’s loss to the LakersDaigneault was asked if he could resort to playing a little more against reserve bigs Bismack Biyombo and Mike Muscala to offset the bigger teams’ size advantage.
“It’s an evaluation process right now, and we’re just putting together the list,” said Daigneault. “It is my responsibility to make sure everyone is prepared to deal with a situation if their number is called, or if it is more appropriate to use it. J Will [Jaylin Williams] is out right now, and it opens up the minutes on the court. We don’t know what we will need. We just have to keep everyone in rhythm and ready. »
Even if OKC were to make a deep playoff run this spring, general manager Sam Presti must look for a true big man to pair with Holmgren next year. Size matters. The small-ball Warriors were an anomaly.
