OKC Thunder Encouraged by Shot Quality In NBA Playoffs

At the end of the day, all that matters is a win. In a playoff series, all that matters is winning four games before your opponent does.

It doesn't have to look pretty, it doesn't have to go smooth, all that counts is the final score.

The Oklahoma City Thunder took care of business in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, knocking out the No. 8-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in four games.

That marked an 8-0 record for the Thunder over the Grizzlies in the 2024-25 campaign. Oklahoma City got historic beatdowns and made a historic comeback in their four playoff tilts against the Beale Street Ballers.

Now, as the Thunder wait for its Round 2 matchup, the only thing left to do is fret over the attractiveness of the series.

One of the things Oklahoma City observers are stressing over is the fact that the Thunder only shot 31% from beyond the arc in this four-game sweep of the Grizzlies.

This is a drop off from the 37% mark the Thunder hit from distance in the regular season. Though the quality of looks the Thunder generated was encouraging for Oklahoma City despite the results.

"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. "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."

Daigneault went on to mention that the main thing is the shot quality, saying that the make-or-miss nature of it can not change your process. That is a good way to view offense. Had the Thunder been converting at a high clip from beyond the arc, that wouldn't have opened the door for Oklahoma City to take higher degree of difficulty triples, just as the fact that they only shot at a 31% clip from distance shouldn't discourage OKC from taking quality looks.

Ultimately, the shot variants will –– and have to –– level out in the second round of the playoffs. The bright spot from a spotty 3-point shooting series is the fact that the Thunder were able to create good looks consistently.

Asked Mark Daigneault about the Thunder’s shot quality from 3 in Round 1: pic.twitter.com/L5silQtcqZ
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) April 29, 2025