INTEGRIS Game Day Report: Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors Game 6 – May 28, 2016

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If the way the Thunder has carried itself in tense moments so far in this Western Conference Finals is any indication, the faithful in Chesapeake Energy Arena can feel strongly that Head Coach Billy Donovan’s club is prepared for the wars to come in Game 6.

Coming up just short of closing out the defending champion and 73-game winning Golden State Warriors in Game 5 out in Oakland was of course not the outcome the Thunder was looking for, but it played with composure, maximum effort and togetherness. As it gears up for this heavyweight slugfest of a Game 6 at home, the Thunder’s leadership recognizes the importance of maintaining that type of razor sharp focus, and dismissing any thoughts of the external circumstances of the series.

“I've been really pleased with our guys the way they've handled themselves and the way they've been composed and trying to move to the next play and move on to the next possession,” Donovan said.

“There are things in the game that we need to do better going into this next game. But we've got to play the 48 minutes,” Donovan explained. “That's really what it comes down to. You can get caught up in thinking about the future and what the results mean at the end of the game, but the bottom line is the result at the end of the game will happen, and what you don't want to do is be focused on the result and forget to do your job during the course of 48 minutes.”

There are concrete areas on the basketball court that the Thunder simply must execute upon in order to have success against this Warriors team. It’s been clear that the Warriors try to manipulate off-ball screening actions between guards like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to generate diving cuts to the rim or flare outs behind the three-point line. To handle those situations the Thunder has to recognize them, call them out and then utilize proper footwork to deter potential passes for open looks.

“It really is understanding positioning and what's happening,” Donovan explained. “All that stuff comes back and starts with communication. If communication's not good, it's really, really hard to get the technique down.”

“Early communication allows you to create the technique that you need to play specific screening and cutting actions in a particular way that helps you,” Donovan continued. “We've done a pretty good job during the series of trying to communicate and defend, and have given very, very good effort.”

Missed shots, the Thunder’s obvious number one goal on defense, lead directly to rebounding opportunities. Throughout the series, rebounding has been a bit of an indicator of team success, with the team who won the battle of the boards coming out victorious in each game. For the series, the Thunder is out-rebounding Golden State by six boards per game, and is averaging one more offensive rebound per game. The Warriors have still managed to rack up 10.4 offensive rebounds per game, a number that will have to be kept in check in Game 6 to prevent second chance points.

“From a rebounding perspective, it's got to be a collective effort by our group, and we've got to do a good job in that area,” Donovan said. “Last night they did a good job of generating some offensive rebounds and some second-chance points and some and one opportunities.”

On the offensive end, the Thunder needs to play with pace as much as possible. Getting its long, rangy athletes out into space has been the most effective way that Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant have been able to generate easy layups at the rim and to get complementary scorers like Serge Ibaka, Andre Roberson, Steven Adams and Dion Waiters involved in the secondary break for catch and shoots or finishes in the paint. In the halfcourt, the Thunder has to maintain a disciplined approach of moving the ball, keeping the floor balanced and attacking the rim to draw help and generate fouls.

“Everybody's defense is built around help and support and rim protection, and building out the three-point line, and understanding and recognizing and reading defenses and making those kind of decisions help things,” Donovan pointed out.

Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors – Game 3 – May 22, 2016

In the early morning hours of Thursday morning, as the Thunder’s team plane was crossing the Rocky Mountains on its way back from Oakland to Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Billy Donovan and the rest of their teammates and coaches were watching film from Games 1 and 2 against the Golden State Warriors. In these Western Conference Finals, there’s no time to waste in preparing for the next game.

Sunday night’s Game 3 will be a pivotal one, as they all are, as the Thunder and the Warriors go toe-to-toe in a 1-1 series to try to advance to the NBA Finals. Led by Durant and Westbrook, the Thunder has assessed where it can improve from Game 2, how it can limit turnovers, prevent second chance points and execute at a higher level.

“That's the one thing that makes those two guys so special is because they have a strong willingness and eagerness to want to improve and get better,” Donovan explained. “It could be in any area. They're just looking to grow and get better.”

One of the areas the Thunder wants to do a better job of defensively in Game 3 is limit the Warriors’ open three-point attempts, both in transition and in the half court. On a few occasions in Game 2, Golden State forwards were able to get Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson open on pin-down screens along the wing by both screening Curry and Thompson’s defenders, but at other times by screening their own defenders when they anticipated the Thunder would switch. As a result, the Thunder has to be unpredictable in its defensive coverages so that the Warriors don’t know exactly what’s coming, or who to screen.

“We've got to mix-up coverage and do some different things,” Donovan said. “Curry and Klay Thompson, they've been guarded every possible way imagined, and they've seen a lot of different things. So a lot of times in those situations you're talking about where there are switches or slips or there's not a screen, there is a screen, it really takes a high level of communication, whatever you're doing, whether you're staying with your man or you are switching. But we've got to change covers up as best we can, and in order to change coverages you've got to communicate.”

Beyond the x’s and o’s, however, the Thunder’s main objective heading into Game 3 is just to do everything at a higher level, with more energy and more concentrated effort. At this stage of the postseason, everyone is playing as hard as they can, leaving everything on the floor. The key is harnessing the energy in the right way and devoting that effort in the ways that lead to victory. That part is much more difficult than simply “playing harder”, it’s about playing with a corralled tenacity and concentrated will.

“They made those plays, and in Game 1, I thought we did a better job,” Donovan said. “They did a great job raising their level of play, and you've got to give them credit.”

“We can watch the film, and we can say ‘oh, we need to switch this one, we need to change this one,’” Serge Ibaka added. “But the reality is they were playing tougher than us. They were tougher, they were more aggressive than us. That's something you can't always watch on film and can't always change. It's mentally. I think it's something we have to do next game.”

Every possession matters in these NBA Playoffs, as the Thunder saw in a hard-fought victory in Oakland in Game 1, when down the stretch it executed better than the Warriors. In Game 2, Donovan’s club let go of the reins for a minute span at the end of the first half, and it turned the tide of the game completely.

That focus and determination to be on point for every possession can make up for a lot of mistakes, difficult shots hit by opponents and tough luck. The key for the Thunder, as leaders like Westbrook described, is to stay vigilant and pull the team out of a bad rhythm before consecutive such possessions pile up.

“Once we play harder, everything else will go into place. I think that's the most important part,” Westbrook said. “Offensive rebounds, extra possessions, stuff like that just shows they wanted it more than us. We can't let that happen.”

“You try to find ways to help each other out, help yourself out, find ways to not let the guy in front of you beat you to the ball, box out, do things that can change the game,” Westbrook added.