Inside The Thunder

Film Review: OKC Thunder 3-Point Struggles Not Concerning, Yet

The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen its 3-point percentage dip in the playoffs, despite sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies in Round 1. That is not concerning, yet.
Rylan Stiles|
Apr 26, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies during game four for the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Apr 26, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies during game four for the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

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Oklahoma City Thunder

Despite the sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Oklahoma City Thunder are still fielding questions about the way they have won.

No matter how much the Thunder dominated during the regular season, their resume was constantly poked at and needled, searching for potholes in what has been an incredible 2024-25 campaign. So this is par for the course for what OKC has dealt with all year –– 'Yeah, they have been great but not great in the way we find appealing!' the NBA world shouts.

The issue most find with the Thunder's short-order cooking of the Memphis Grizzlies was the team's 3-point output, converting at just a 31% clip on triples in this series.

Though every miss is not created equal. The Thunder are encouraged by the first round despite the results, due to the process.

"Pretty good when you go back and look at it. I think we shot below expectations for the series, from an offensive standpoint. Which is encouraging in a couple of ways. The first way is it gives us some confidence that we generated good shots which is important. You want the process to be good and it was. The other thing is, the fact we didn't shoot it on expectation we believe we will on a larger sample, but the fact that we didn't forced us to manufacture some wins. It forced us to manufacture offense with offensive rebounds and finding other ways to score and it forced us to lean on our defense," Head coach Mark Daigneault said Tuesday at practice. "We are going to need all of that as we continue to move forward. The shot making, as we know, is very night-to-night."

So, let's go back and look at the Thunder's 3-point shots from specifically the final two games of the series to get a grasp of Oklahoma City's shot quality against Memphis.

Film Review: Under the hood of the OKC Thunder 3-point shots

During the first clip you see the OKC Thunder offense working as it is supposed to. The superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets downhill, kicks the ball out to the slot where Chet Holmgren gets a wide-open triple. He simply misses.

In this next clip, the same possession, Lu Dort gets an offensive rebound and kicks it out to Alex Caruso for a wide-open triple. A lineup line shot quality that is just simply left short.

In this next clip, again Oklahoma City's process is great. They move the ball and play catch between Lu Dort and Jalen Williams forcing Desmond Bane –– who is trying to play two –– to get caught in the middle and give up a clean look. You guessed it, a miss. But, Williams is the guy you want to give clean catch-and-shoot chances to. The Santa Clara product is a career 38% 3-point shooter this season, making a living on these chances.

The next 3-pointer to look at is the Oklahoma City Thunder getting the ball to Jaylin Williams above the break on a shot that he converts at a high clip (37%). With three bodies around the rim, the Thunder kick it out to the Arkansas big man, who misses a quality look from beyond the arc.

A beautiful skip pass to Chet Holmgren to the empty side of the corer sets up a wide-open 3-point that does not go in.

Again, the Oklahoma City Thunder are getting into the paint and collapsing the defense to generate a high-level look from beyond the arc that just simply will not go down.

Eventually, this comes down to a make-or-miss league. For now, the Thunder have found ways to win despite the missed triples. If OKC is still generating –– and taking –– clean looks from the 3-point line then the math suggests the success will follow. If the makes never come, then it is a different conversation.

The difference in last year's postseason and this one is the Thunder are more willing to take and more consistently generating clean 3-point looks which will help them break out of this slump.

Now, only time will tell if this becomes a bigger issue for the OKC Thunder down the line in the NBA Playoffs.

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Rylan Stiles
RYLAN STILES

Rylan Stiles is a credentialed media member covering the Oklahoma City Thunder. He hosts the Locked On Thunder Podcast, and is Lead Beat Writer for Inside the Thunder. Rylan is also an award-winning play-by-play broadcaster for the Oklahoma Sports Network. 

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