The NBA has an OKC Thunder PROBLEM…

The NBA has an OKC Thunder PROBLEM…

There is an NBA team with the best defense in the league, the number five offense in the league. They’re missing their second best player, and yet they’re still winning games by an average of 16 points per night. And by the way, they’ve only lost one game all season. And they should have two top 10 picks in next year’s draft. Yeah, we have an Oklahoma City Thunder problem because Sam Prey has gone out and created the greatest rebuild of all time. And then last night they go out and absolutely lock down the exciting whites from Los Angeles in Luca Donuch and Austin Reeves. And not only did they shut those two guys down, they embarrassed the Lakers without obviously their two prized young guys, but also without their second best player, Jaylen Williams, who hasn’t played a single game, arguably their best perimeter defender in Lou Dort. And then the man that saved basketball himself, Aaron Wiggins, was not in uniform last night. Not to mention Kenny Hustle, their veteran. And yet they still had their way with a team that was third in the West coming in last night. And they clamped down Luca Donic. In particular, Kase Wallace and Alex Caruso. And just this is masterful right here. Luca’s going to try to back him down and then bait him into a foul. And watch Wiggins just stay off and not go for any ball fakes. Like I said, between the two of them, they locked him down. And they didn’t even have Lou Dort Luca, not stopper, but slow down guy in the past. And then once again, watch Case Wallace here. The hands, the active hands, shadows the ball with his hands in every move. Doesn’t bite for the pump fake, but is still able to contest this jumper and make it extremely tough for Luca to hit. He’s got him uh perplexed by this point. And then watch Alice Caruso right here. This is just about as good as you can do at playing trail coverage. Coming off of a screen, Luca gets into that step back. Caruso has two high hands, not just one, but two, and denies that shot. And then once again, not falling for any of Luca’s tricks, not falling for the ball fakes here. As he drives, he’s going to try to get up under Caruso’s arms to create a foul. And Caruso does a great job of keeping his hands down by his side and forcing that offbalance miss right there. And then once again, another great job of AJ Mitchell here. This time just staying straight up and not letting Luca, you know, draw contact. Then right here, great job of Kase Wallace sticking with the play. And then this is about as good of a defensive rep as I’ve seen all season against Luca Dante. is a guy who’s averaging 40 a game by the way. Um Kay Wilds guarded him for 6 minutes and 15 seconds held him to seven points on three of nine shooting, three assists, but three turnovers as well. Watch him navigate this connect ball screen. There’s another one coming from Jackson Hayes, so he’s got to be wary of that. But he also is able to stop Luca from slamming on the brakes and going the other way and forces him into a really tough one-legged jump shot without the foul being drawn. Caruso with another great close out there. And then right here, the blitz, which is something that Mark Dagnaw started to run more in this game against the pick and roll of Luca Donic. And right here, we’re going to see Caruso get under this screen. But both he and the big are going to blitz at Luca, both run at Luca. We’re going to make him give it up to Vanderbilt here. And while that puts you at a disadvantage, you’d obviously rather have Jared Vanderbilt making the play than Luca Donic. And then watch Cadet showing off a little bit of versatility here, forcing a really bad miss from Luca. And then it wasn’t just Luca. Austin Reeves was also getting clamped himself. They combined for 32 points, 10 assist, and nine turnovers on 11 of 32 shooting from the field and one of 12 from beyond there. It was a rough night for these boys. Usman Jiang getting in on the action with a great contest there against an Austin Reeves step back three and then just swarming the ball. There’s not one, there’s always at least two when you’re around the rim against Oklahoma City. and then tries to go with the big boy shoulder bump against Isaiah Job, but gets caught off balance um because Joe doesn’t foul him. And that’s what Reeves and Donuch are so good at is drawing fouls. But OKC, I mean, this is a great rep by AJ Mitchell staying in front and not fouling and then getting out and running the other way. Uh here comes Reeves again, but House Caruso says, “No sir, I’m coming back to get that.” I’m sure Lakers fans miss Caruso at this point. Then Case Wallace just baits that pass from Reeves and you can see the frustration start to come out. So, defensively, they were elite last night. Offensively, once again, they have maybe the best half court score in the world in Shay Gil’s Alexander. Uh 36% from three this year on six attempts. He’s getting that up from, I believe it was what, 34 last year. Um and then he’s bringing the mid-range back, which is so beautiful to watch. 30 points, nine assists, five rebounds, two steals in 29 minutes, on 10 of 18 shooting from the field, two of seven from three. And if you take out his first two games this year, he’s only shooting about seven free throws per game, which is, you know, you haven’t heard the foul bait merchants in a while. And it’s been since those first couple of games, and he hadn’t been shooting as many free throws. 32 1/2 points a game is what he’s putting up on the year. 6 and a half assists, 5.3 rebounds, shooting, 52% from the field, 36% from three on six attempts per game. Getting into the lane, hitting a little step back here over Marcus Smart. And then once again against SM here they blitz him. This time LA blitzes which is what we were talking about earlier OKC doing. He makes a correct read finds Alex Caruso and once he finds Caruso then it is three against two down basically at the restricted circle against Luca Donic and Jackson Hayes. And you got three of your guys. Caruso is going to make the right read nine times out of 10 right there. And then a really nice set here by Dagnall or a little action at the top of the key where we’ve got Kase Wallace and Hartinstein setting a little stagger screen. We’ve seen the Nuggets do this before as well with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Valenunis or right here with THJ and Joic for Jamal Murray to come off the screen, but this time with SGA, they get the switch on to Eightton and then Hartinstein just beats Luca Donuch to the rim and that’s an easy pass and the easiest finish Hartinstein had all night. Then the mismatch here against DeAndre Aiden. Shay is just so strong in the paint when he’s creating space and when he plays more than 30 minutes a night, he’s averaging 35 points per game this year. But there’s been seven games where he hasn’t even hit the 30 minute mark because OKC is just blowing everybody out of the water. If he was playing like 40 minutes a game like Luca was, he’d probably be averaging close to 40 because he’s at a point per minute right now. With that being said, if you made it this far in the video, make sure to like button, leave me a comment down below, and hit the subscribe button. As you can see, 93% of the people watch these videos are not subscribed. So, if that is you, go ahead and fix that. And let’s take a look here at Mr. AJ Mitchell, Mr. breakout this season because he is averaging 17 points per game, 3.8 rebounds, 3.8 assist, and 1.8 steals in just 28 minutes while shooting 47% from the field, 35% from three. Bit of a question mark there um on 4.7 attempts, but he is just able to create space in the mid-range. He’s still 23 by the way, so pretty young by all means. And just being able, he’s bringing the mid-range back as well. makes a tough pass here falling down. Um Kase Wallace, who we talked about earlier, might be the best defender in the NBA. You literally can’t put the ball down in front of him or with his 69 wingspan, he’s going to go swallowed up. Kind of like Kawawaii from back in the day. Um it’s a smaller Kawawaii that can guard on the perimeter a little bit better. Doesn’t have the interior defense, but I mean, still a fantastic defender. And then just put nuts in Marcus Smart’s face. Hartinstein has been solid as well, especially, you know, being the bruiser down low, letting Chet play out on the perimeter a little bit more. Um, I had said coming into the year that maybe this is his last year here, but he’s playing real well right now, so maybe it’s not. Chad Homegrren as well. Uh, got off to that blazing hot start. Didn’t have the best game last night, but that’s a tough move right there. Spinning in and fading away getting the and one. He’s averaging 19 a game with eight rebounds, 1.8 8 assist and 1.3 steals in just 29 minutes, shooting 59% from the field and 38% from three on four attempts. Uh like I said, OKC pretty much everybody on the team’s numbers are deflated a little bit because none of them get to play their full burn as they normally would cuz they’re killing everybody. Alex Caruso, another guy, just fantastic defender. Just the guy that you want on your team. You hate to play against him, but you love when he’s on your squad and knocking down the three. And if he can get back to 40% from three like he was in Chicago, then look out. Usman Jiang got a little bit of burn last night and so far this year he’s playing about 12 minutes a game. Again, a lot of that is garbage time through 10 games, but he looked decent last night. Little shot, fake, one dribble, pull up. Very fundamental right there. Isaiah Joe, another guy here who he missed the first few games of the year, but he has come out of the gates on fire. The man is averaging about 16 and a half points per game. Just dropped 20 last night. Three rebounds, 6 deals, 1.4 24 assists in 26 minutes shooting 44% from the field and 41% from threeon-9 attempts. And it’s not like that’s not going to continue. Isaiah Joe can shoot 41% from threeon-9 attempts, especially with the looks he’s getting right now because everybody is so focused on Shay. And when JDub comes back and AJ Mitchell, you also got Jaylen Williams here as well. Asian Duke Dennis out there balling. Uh but yeah, the NBA has an OKC Thunder problem. With that being said, that’s going to be it for today’s video. Thanks so much for watching. Make sure the like button, leave me a comment down below, and that subscribe button if you did enjoy any point. With that being said, thank you so much for watching today’s video.

This video looks at the Oklahoma City Thunder and how they look unstoppable right now with the best defense in the NBA and Shai Gilgeous Alexander
Other Channels:
Backyard Blitz: https://www.youtube.com/@BackyardBlitz33
Backyard Betting: https://www.youtube.com/@BackyardBetting
Socials
Insta/Tiktok: LukeStaten3