Thunder Could Hunt Certain Matchups in Remainder of First Round

Oklahoma City might have an advantage on the perimeter if they can get to it.

Oklahoma City has its hands full with Willie Green’s impressive defensive squad. The Pelicans have the defenders to lock down OKC’s best players and the length and size down low provides the Thunder a challenge. The difficulties showed up in game one.

Herb Jones plays great defense on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and always has. He’s just as tall, if not taller than SGA, and moves like a much shorter guard. His agility and length make him one of the best defenders in the NBA. Trey Murphy is quietly a good defender, too. Gilgeous-Alexander still racked up 28 points, which is close to his season average, but he shot just 11-of-24 from the floor. New Orleans played great team defense too, holding the Thunder to just 94 points.

Moving forward, there’s one obvious spot where the Thunder could attack the Pelicans on the perimeter. CJ McCollum really struggles to stay in front of players like Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Oklahoma City could hunt switches to match up McCollum on the team’s two stars and allow isolation from there.

According to Pelicans Columbia, OKC shot 12-of-19 FG (63.2%) from the floor with McCollum as the main defender. On a bad shooting night, a stat like that really jumps off the page. The Pelicans lead guard was scoring to keep New Orleans in the game, but giving up a significant amount of points on the other end. On the other hand, OKC shot 25-of-77 outside of shots defended by McCollum. Overall, nearly a third of the Thunder’s points were scored on McCollum.

OKC shot 12/19 FG (63.2%) with CJ McCollum as the main defender and 25/77 (32.5%) in the rest of the shots. Almost 1/3 of their made FGs were with CJ as the defender. pic.twitter.com/t0AuI3rlJl

— Pelicans Colombia (@pelicanscol) April 24, 2024

Mark Daigneault loves to run ghost screen action and guard-to-guard screens, which could make it easier to hunt McCollum on defense. If he's guarding Lu Dort or Josh Giddey, it could really play into Oklahoma City's hands. On the last possession of the game for the Thunder, McCollum switched onto Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest is history. He nailed an and-one floater in the lane and gave his team the win.

If the Thunder attacks the Pelicans weak spots, it could be a spark for the offense moving forward.

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