Thunder: 3 Areas For Improvement From Game 1

Pick And Roll Defense

OK, this one was apparent from the tip. Once it was clear that the Thunder were going to switch all on-ball screens with Harden, everyone in the building knew it would be a steady diet of exposing Steven Adams and poor, poor Enes Kanter.

Andre Roberson did a tremendous job on Harden when he was guarding “The Beard.” The problem was, that wasn’t a whole lot. Particularly in the third quarter, when Houston really distanced themselves from Oklahoma City.

As it was clear Harden was going to carve up Adams and (to a lesser extent) Taj Gibson, I thought, “Oh please, do not put Kanter in.” Well, it happened and Oklahoma City’s worst nightmare became a reality.

It was abundantly clear at that point if this was going be the Thunder’s game plan, Kanter could not be on the floor when Harden is (which is 36-40 minutes per night).

TNT even caught Donovan saying what everyone watching was thinking to assistant coach Maurice Cheeks.

The Thunder most adopt a new strategy going forward to keep Roberson on Harden as much as possible. He and Victor Oladipo are the only players on the roster that stand a chance of staying in front of Harden for prolonged stretches.

Either that, or play hyperactive and switchy Jerami Grant, but that comes with its own set of problems on the offensive end and leaves another frontcourt spot open to one of Oklahoma City’s slow-footed bigs.

The definition of insanity is doing something again and again and expecting a different result.