We Watched It (In Case You Missed It)
An Early Playoff Evening in the NBA’s Wild, Wild West
OKC and Denver stars grab the headlines, but defense and bench play are key in two huge battles
When the dust settled on the NBA Monday night, just one playoff spot remained. The Thunder, Spurs, and Pelicans clinched their spots, and a Wednesday battle between Denver and Minnesota will determine 2018’s final playoff team.
Around the West, the Spurs, Timberwolves, and Pelicans all took care of business. San Antonio let the Kings hang around before Manu Ginobili and Rudy Gay helped them pull away late to secure a 21st straight playoff berth. The Wolves got a big bench push from Tyus Jones and Derrick Rose to stave off the Grizzlies and keep hope alive. And the Pelicans blew the doors off the Clippers with a huge third quarter punctuated by repeated Anthony Davis alley oops and dunks, securing their their spot in the playoffs.
Each of those games had implications for only one team, but two games featured West teams fighting for their playoff lives with playoff-intensity battles and lots of defense. We watched it in case you missed it, so let’s take a look at Thunder-Heat and Blazers-Nuggets and see what we can learn with the playoff just around the corner…
Oklahoma City 115, Miami 93
The Heat came out on fire, roaring to a 16–1 lead as the Thunder started 0-for-9 from the field and didn’t make a basket until the 4:51 mark in the first quarter. That was the latest a team made their first field goal all season, and it looked like the Saturday-night-OKC-win-over-Houston hangover was in full effect. But how quickly and how powerfully Oklahoma City turned this around shows what a dangerous opponent they still are.
Miami dominated the paint with a 38–6 first-half advantage, but the Thunder made seven threes and 14 free throws to pull back to within three at the half. And in a surprise twist, the Thunder bench far outplayed Miami’s presumed deeper team and ended up turning the game around.
The good and bad of Russell Westbrook
The headlines will show Russell Westbrook as the star with his 25th triple-double of the season and a gaudy 23/18/13 line. We take Westbrook’s triple-doubles for granted, but those 25 triple-doubles this season alone would place him 13th all time on the career list, just three behind Michael Jordan. If Westbrook gets one more triple-double Wednesday night against the tanking Grizzlies, his 26 this year will tie for fourth most all time in a season. And if he gets 16 rebounds, he’ll average a triple-double for the second straight year. Just 365 days ago, there had only been one triple-double season in NBA history. Russell Westbrook is ridiculous.
Still, Westbrook compiled all those numbers on 8-of-21 shooting, including 6-of-15 on twos, and he racked up six turnovers. That’s 15 Oklahoma City possessions ending in a Westbrook turnover or missed two. With Russ, you always get the good and the bad.
OKC bench and defense won it
It looks like Westbrook was the star, but it was the Oklahoma City bench and its defense that turned this one around. Early Thunder defense got dominated in the paint. A halftime adjustment saw them shut down the paint better, only to leak good looks around the perimeter by wide-open Miami shooters after drive and kicks. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that OKC really turned up the defensive heat, not coincidentally coinciding with extended Jerami Grant minutes. The Thunder dominated the final quarter 39–12. It was Miami’s worst defensive quarter of the season, but the 12 was the more important number as Oklahoma City simply didn’t give Miami any good looks.
The Heat bench was really unimpressive, led by a terrible game from Dwyane Wade. Wade had six points and five turnovers on 2-of-10 shooting and finished a brutal -31 in 24 minutes. With Wade off the court, the ball zipped around Miami players drove the lane and found space or created open shots for shooters around the arc. With him out there, it was lots of Wade iso creation and jumpers, often leading to long rebounds and OKC run outs. Raymond Felton, Patrick Patterson, and Jerami Grant are not supposed to dominate a good team’s bench, but that’s what happened here.
Miami’s no-star formula comes up short
Miami prides itself on defense and a no-star team that shares the ball, but that identity was a problem late when OKC turned up its defensive intensity. Suddenly no stars meant no one to attack Carmelo Anthony one-on-one, no one to turn to when the rim tightened and shots wouldn’t fall. It meant more Dwyane Wade iso, more OKC rebounds and run-outs before Miami could set its defense. That’s a formula for Heat losses, and it’s a dangerous sign for a team likely to face a stingy Boston or Philly defense in round one.
Westbrook wasn’t the reason the Thunder won this game, but he was the reason they ran away with it late. Oklahoma City closed the game on a 21–2 run, and it felt like Russ was still playing at Mach Five while the Heat had nothing left to give. Miami got sloppy late, and Westbrook made them pay with quick drives to the basket, lay-offs for teammates, and full-court attacks off those rebounds everyone says aren’t valuable.
OKC’s two stars make them ever dangerous
Miami looked the better team for three quarters, but Oklahoma City had the best two players on the court, and that mattered late. Miami made too many turnovers and fouls — and the Thunder got the star treatment from the refs at times — and OKC got hot on its jumpers and added a huge 31–8 margin from the free throw line. That’s the story with this Oklahoma City team. When the jumpers fall, they can look invincible. But it also makes them very streaky.
It’s time to put the “Big Three” talk to bed in Oklahoma City. You barely notice Carmelo Anthony much of the time, which might be a best case scenario since at least it means he’s not getting killed on defense. Melo scored 11 on 4-of-11 shooting in 30 minutes, and it absolutely felt like a two-superstar Thunder team with role players around them. But those two stars can turn supernova at any time, and that means the Thunder are always dangerous. With a win Wednesday night against Memphis, they finish no lower than the 6-seed. That keeps them away from Houston and Golden State, and it means they may have the best or even two best players in a first-round series.
For Miami, this is sort of par for the course. They’re tough and gritty and will make you play hard and beat them, and Oklahoma City beat them. The Heat shot 5-of-22 from deep and couldn’t hit shot late, but they also struggled creating them against ramped-up defense. Justise Winslow was unimpressive. He had 12 and 9 but looked lost on both ends at times and finished a game-worst -35, playing a team-leading 34 minutes as Miami needed his defensive ability out there. He should feature much less in the playoffs unless the Heat draw the Cavs in round one and need him against LeBron.
Takeaways
Monday night was the Heat and Thunder in a nutshell. Miami will be a tough out, but stars win in the playoffs. Oklahoma City remains streaky and jump-shot reliant, but they’re at their best when the defense cranks up the intensity, and Westbrook can go supernova at anytime. The Thunder will have some ugly moments, but at their best, they can still hang with anyone.
Denver 88, Portland 82
This felt like a playoff game from the opening tip, and the intensity and defense was on full display (along with a lot of missed shots). If you took the under in this one, the 170 points combined helped you coast to an easy win in a surprisingly low-scoring game.
Portland looked good early with outstanding defense
Portland controlled the game early with outstanding defense and a particularly sparkling 26–14 second quarter. The Blazers had balanced scoring early, with 11 halftime points each for Lillard, McCollum, and Nurkic.
Jusuf Nurkic looks like a Hall of Famer whenever he gets a chance to play his old Nuggets teammates, and he was at his best in the third quarter. He made a handful of big defensive plays and absolutely dominated on the glass, especially offensively. Nurkic finished the game with 20 points and 19 rebounds, eight of them on offense. Portland’s second chance points kept them in the game on a night when Lillard and McCollum couldn’t get their shots to fall. Really, no one outside of Nurkic could hit shots for Portland as the non-Nurkic Blazers combined to shoot 22-of-79, an abysmal 28% from the field. Some of that was increased defensive intensity from Denver with everything on the line, and some of it was just plain missed shots.
Will Barton’s energy saves the day
Gary Harris played for the first time in three weeks for Denver and made a difference, scoring 12 points on nine shots in 18 minutes. It was a curious choice to see him come off the bench when he has such great natural chemistry with Jokic, but a return to normal roles in the second half also meant a return to normal efficacy for Will Barton, and Barton was at his best in the third quarter.
Barton is the one guy on Denver that feels absolutely fearless, the guy always playing at top energy, always able to cut to the rim or create some offense for himself or teammates. Sometimes all that energy means Barton does a little too much, but the turnovers are part of the Barton package, sort of a mini Westbrook situation. He led the team with 22 points, and his energy turned things around for Denver in the third quarter.
Denver’s defense and superstar came through in the 4th
Portland led by as many as 11 in the third quarter as the season looked like it might start to slip away, but the Blazers scored only 20 points the rest of the game and just 13 in the final period. It was an ugly quarter for both teams, a 22–13 win for Denver, with increased intensity both on the defensive end and in the pressure on players’ faces. Jokic was much better defensively, and Millsap made some of those little intangible plays he has always been known for.
Jamal Murray missed back-to-back wide open threes with a few minutes left, and started to feel like maybe this just wasn’t going to happen for Denver. But the Blazers looked tired late and just couldn’t score. They had six fourth-quarter turnovers, and Lillard uncharacteristically missed five of his nine second-half free throws. For a 92% free throw shooter, there was under one half of a percent chance for Lillard to miss four freebies in that spot — sometimes you just need the ball to bounce in your favor.
While Portland’s biggest star came up short late, Denver’s shined and led them to victory. Nikola Jokic put up a 15/20/11/2/1 box line and dominated a game where his shot wouldn’t fall. He stepped up his defense in the second half, and his passing down the stretch led to a handful of easy buckets in a quarter when points were very hard to come by. Jokic was awesome, on both ends, and he fought back to win the battle with Nurkic as Serbia defeated Bosnia for one night.
It felt like the refs lost control of those one late with very inconsistent calls, many of which went in Denver’s favor. Sometimes, that’s basketball. Sometimes you need a few 50/50 calls and unlikely missed free throws in a big game. It’s a make or miss league.
Neither team could make shots to save their lives in this one. The teams combined to shoot 35% from the field and an awful 13-of-59 from deep, just 22%. That’s why Portland led early on, when their second chance points off putbacks made the difference, and it’s why Denver ultimately won it when Jokic’s unique passing ability repeatedly found guys for good looks near the basket in a game when good looks where so scarce.
Takeaways
Portland was a three-man team, and the role players didn’t show up in a big way. Rookies Zach Collins and Caleb Swanigan played 19 minutes and didn’t seem up for a game of this magnitude, and Denver got little from its bench outside of Gary Harris.
Both Portland and Denver looked dangerous at times, and at other times they looked like teams still fighting for playoff positioning heading into the final night of the season. The Blazers are going to be trouble when Nurkic plays like this, and Dame and C.J. will hit more shots most days. Denver has a unique blend of talent and can score in a litany of ways, but they’ll need more of Monday night’s defensive effort if they want to make the playoffs Wednesday, and a lot more of it once they get there if they want to make any noise.
Both teams have stars, but both have missing parts, unreliable depth, and a multitude of inconsistency. The Western playoffs are going to be a heck of a ride. See you Wednesday night.
Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, humor, TV, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here. Thanks to Basketball Reference as always.
