Game #14 – Thunder @ Pacers Game Notes
By Tim Donahue
The Pacers host Oklahoma City for one last home game before heading out west for a week. The Thunder are one of the most exciting young teams in the league, and one of the best road teams to boot. In six contests away from Oklahoma, the Thunder have won five of them.
Behind Enemy Lines – Daily Thunder
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These two teams underscore the difference between the two conferences right now. The Pacers record of 7-6 is good enough for 5th best in the East, while OKC’s 10-5 leaves them 6th West.
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The matchup on the Pacer offensive end of the court is hardly a clash of the Titans. The Pacers are below average in all of the Four Factors in except for shooting, while the Thunder defense is below average in all Four Defensive Factors. The Thunder’s defense performances are somewhat confusing.
In their last two road games, Oklahoma City has cranked up the defensive intensity allowing only 92 points per 100 possessions in wins in Boston and Milwaukee. However, they apparently lost it with their luggage, as they returned home to allow over 20 more points per 100 in their last two games. Which Oklahoma City defense shows up tonight will go a long way towards determining the outcome.
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At the other end of the court will be the “power matchup,” so to speak. The Thunder are seventh in overall Offensive Rating, while the Pacers stand fifth in Defensive Efficiency. OKC is not a great shooting team, and they don’t shoot a lot of three pointers (14.7 per game, 24th in the league), but they do draw a lot of fouls.
Much like in the Miami game, the biggest area of concern defensively is that the Pacers – a team prone to sending teams to the line – are playing a team good at getting to the line – the Thunder. However, where Miami was middling at hitting free throws, there is no team better than Oklahoma City, who leads the league at .859.
Danny Granger will get to test his newfound defensive chops against one of the best players in the Association – Kevin Durant. The bigger headache for the Pacers might be dealing with Russell Westbrook, who is having a fantastic year. His size dwarfs both Darren Collison and T.J. Ford, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Brandon Rush slide over to take him.
Some things to watch tonight:
- The last time the Thunder visited Conseco, they were completely demolished by the Pacers. The Pacers were 23 games under .500 entering the game, but led basically wire-to-wire, nonetheless. It had all the earmarks of a good young team (OKC) going to sleep on a bad team and getting destroyed. It shouldn’t happen this year, but the Thunder’s lone loss on the road this year came to the Los Angeles Clippers, while they’ve won in Portland, Utah, Boston, and Milwaukee. Of course, while the Thunder should be much better prepared, the Pacers appear to be just a much, much better basketball team overall.
- Michael Dunleavy will retain his starting job at the 2, and Rush will come off the bench. There’s no real offensive threat at the off-guard position for the Thunder tonight (James Harden, Thabo Sefolosha), but Dunleavy’s start does mean that Darren Collison will have to play Russell Westbrook pretty much straight up.
- The Pacers have become something of a darling since beating the Heat Monday. NBA.com’s John Schuhmann ran some numbers and concluded that “the Indiana Pacers have played like a playoff team,” and “And what we find (see table) is that the Pacers are indeed for real.” He’s looking a point differential, which is a good indicator of future performance. While I’m happy to see the Pacers get some positive pub, I’m going to remain cautious until I see them play a few more tough games. It’s too early to pay a lot of attention to standings. However, if Indiana can win two or three of the next five games, then I might believe.