Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 takeaways from Game 2 vs. Jazz
2. Shooting woes plague OKC
After ranking in the top 10 in nearly every major defensive category throughout the regular season, Utah’s defense, led by Defensive Player of the year candidate Rudy Gobert, is one of the stingiest in the league.
This was put on full display in Game 2, as the team held OKC to just 40 percent shooting from the field.
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The Jazz have made life miserable for plenty of teams over the course of the year, but with a roster featuring scorers in Westbrook, George and Carmelo Anthony, such shooting, as well as the low scoring totals it led to, simply won’t cut it for a team hoping to contend for a championship.
At 41.7 percent, Utah didn’t shoot much better from the field, but that didn’t stop guys from scoring in bunches. Donovan Mitchell had 28. Rubio had 22. Even Derrick Favors had 20.
Westbrook led the Thunder with 19 points, a truly remarkable number for a player we’ve grown so accustomed to shooting his way out of even the worst of slumps.
Bad shooting nights will rear their ugly heads every once in a while, but with as much talent as OKC has on the offensive end, there’s no reason for the Thunder to have zero players score over 20 points in a single game.