Game 5 between OKC and Houston shocked me. After a long day, I couldn't help digging into Synergy reports tonight and below are some interesting findings that are coming into focus.
Essentially, OKC offense in this series consists of four main types:
- Spot-ups 23.6%
- ISO 18.6%
- PnR 13.9%
- Transition 12.6%
1) The highest percent of OKC's postseason offense is actually spot-ups (23.6 percent). Out of 23.6 percent, 21 percent of spot-ups come from Kmart who only scores 0.67 percent per play, very very average - that's a big hole.
2) The second highest percent of OKC's postseason offense is isolation. 59 percent of isolation plays are dedicated to KD who scores 1.24 points per play which is tremendously outstanding. Russ contributes 11% (average, 0.64PPP), Kmart 10% (poor, 0.2PPP). Apparently, there aren't other great ISO options in addition to KD.
3) OKC runs just 13.9 percent of their offense out of PnR, down from 19.05 percent in the regular season. Durant is the top initiator in this series, accounting for 33.33 percent of them, while he was involved in 22.28 with Russ accounting for 37.31 percent of OKC's PnR during the regular season.
4) Majority of transition plays are from KD 25% (0.944PPP), Russ 20.6% (1.43PPP), Kmart 13.2 % (1.56PPP).
To give another perspective, a typical LBJ's offense can be found as follows:
當詹姆斯控球，雷阿倫跑邊，防守隻能做一次賭博式的選擇硬幣在左邊的罐子裏，或者在右邊的罐子裏。巴蒂爾說，我們想讓對手做選擇，當然這樣選擇一點都不好玩：阿倫的底角三分是致命的，讓他投你就有麻煩，不讓他投，那就像在做生意，或者賺到，或者賠了。From an old post by 大前。
OKC adopts the same strategy having KD roll hard kicking to Kmart, Fisher and Sefolosha, not Allen and Battier though. In game 5, OKC produced 20 assists, while Durant dished out seven of those. He was doubled or tripled or quadrupled all night long, finding Martin, Sefolosha and his teammates for open outside looks they remarkably missed. KD is human, no different than LBJ who needs a team to win a great playoff series. Is Russ the answer? Honestly No. KD needs a lot more help than Russ, while Russ provides good pull-up shots and layups in transitions but his emotional decision making sometimes outweighs his value on the team when playing an elite team like Miami. It is also not a secret that OKC is not a good rebounding team. OKC has been trying to keep the rebounding deferential as close to even as possible and part of the way they are able to do that is KD, not Perk, not Ibaka, not their bench bigs.
When this Friday the series shifts back to Houston, in Russ's absence, will OKC restore their simple concept - PnR that they used brilliantly against the Spurs in last year's playoffs? Can Kmart, Fisher, or even Jackson initiate some of good looks to get Ibaka going? Can Kmart finally show up like Jason Terry finally arrived in Boston? I am so disappointed in Kmart's performance...ah.
Lastly, according to the stats, the Rockets offense was mostly simple drive and kick that's chewing the Thunder up, similar to how Miami defeated OKC in the Finals in 2012. - The Rockets averaged 1.18 point per play on spot-ups, with Chandler Parsons (1.28), Francisco Garcia (1.36), Carlos Delfino (1.37), Patrick Beverley (1.33) and James Harden (1.25) all doing serious damage in Game 4. Aren't they awesome? Can they replicate the same result for one more time?Until Friday night's Game 6.
