OKC Thunder turn defense into offense, dominate against Knicks
In Carmelo Anthony’s first game against his old team the Oklahoma City Thunder were able to turn defense into offense and eventually dominate against the New York Knicks.
The big story before the game was how would new Oklahoma City Thunder forward Carmelo Anthony play in his first game against his former team, the New York Knicks? The answer was he played great, but once the ball was tipped, that was essentially forgotten. The new storyline is the chemistry of the big three. All three players (Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook and Paul George) were able to score 20-plus points.
The Oklahoma City Thunder won the game 105-84 where they used their defense to score the ball on the offensive side. The Thunder forced 26 turnovers and turned that into 38 points. In the fast break category the Thunder won the battle 35-8. The Thunder will have to take what was successful in this game and do the same things game in and game out to win games. The defense should be the focal point for the whole season.
A way that this can happen is the rotation. Earlier on in the game the Thunder rested Westbrook and Anthony and George were out on the floor. This is key because that means that their players will be fresh going into games during the long season which helps the effort on defense. The load wasn’t on one player. The offensive game was balanced. Carmelo had 22, Paul George had 28 and Westbrook had 21.
The team assisted on 66.7 percent of their made shots which means the ball was moving. During the beginning of the game the ball seemed to stick and they were taking too many outside shot attempts but after a while they were able to get easy baskets off of turnovers.
Westbrook was able to continue his triple double rampage. His stat line was 21 points, 10 rebounds and 16 assists. The question was how would Westbrook be able to play while having two other superstars on his team after the debacle with Kevin Durant and game one of 82 has shown that it is possible for these players to coexist. Westbrook has showed no signs of slowing down after getting work done to his knee during the offseason.
As for Anthony, he was able to score his first Thunder points when hemade a 3-point shot early in the first quarter. Anthony said in an interview with Marc Stein of the New York Times a day before the game that ex president Phil Jackson was willing to trade him for “a bag of chips” and that when the new Knicks GM, Scott Perry was brought in they went from “asking for peanuts to asking for steak.”
Anthony was able to prove to the Knicks organization that he is still the player that will be a force to be reckoned with. He added 2 steals and 2 blocks to his 22 points. Also, blowing out your former team in the season opener isn’t bad.
Extra Thoughts
Thunder 2017 first round pick Terrance Ferguson was able to score his first basket on a layup in transition in the fourth quarter during garbage time.
The Thunder shot 38 3-pointers and only made 11. However from last year when they were dead last in 3-point percentage it is good that there is more effort to put up threes and there are more players capable of making them.
Next: 30 reasons to be excited for the 2017-18 NBA season
Steven Adams was able to shoot 100 percent from the field. He shot the ball five times.