While holding the title as one of the best teams in the NBA for the past few seasons, the Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to compete for a title every year. With Kevin Durant, who has won the scoring title for three of the past four seasons; Russell Westbrook, who was proved to be one, if not the best scoring guards in the game; and the strong frontcourt of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, the Thunder will always be in contention to win a title. However, there is one thing that has been a huge road block on their journey for a championship. Turnovers.
Over the last two seasons, constant turnovers have greatly hindered the Thunder’s chances of being crowned NBA champs. During the 2011-12 campaign, the Thunder finished dead last in turnovers per game with an abysmal 16.3. Not much improvement was made this season while they committed 14.6 turnovers per game and finished four spaces from last place. These constant turnovers kill momentum, give the opponent easy baskets and are simply unacceptable come playoff time.
Basketball is a simple game. It is a game of mistakes and usually the team that makes the most is going to come out on the short end. The entire series against the Memphis Grizzlies was a great example of how a team can be negatively affected by too many turnovers. Though the Thunder were already playing without star guard Russell Westbrook, the odds were stacked even higher due to the fact that they were giving the ball away at high rates against the Grizzlies while also not forcing many takeaways of their own. This led to many easy transition baskets for the Grizzlies, who ultimately won the series convincingly.
While it’s quite impossible to completely cut out turnovers, making it a habit to take better care of the ball really makes a difference in almost every area of the game. The offense has a better chance of establishing some rhythm and momentum and the pressure to stop fast breaks is decreased for the defense.For Oklahoma City specifically, the teams that are likely to challenge them the most on their path to a championship (the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat) are teams that thrive on forcing turnovers while also not committing many of their own. These teams thrive on forcing turnovers to initiate fast breaks and easy baskets in the open floor. If OKC hopes to have any chance to overcome these teams, or any other team in their way, they must take better care of the basketball, or else this will happen…