OKC Thunder Starting Lineup Needs Tweak vs. Timberwolves
There is no need to panic after dropping a single game. After all, it would’ve been hard for the Oklahoma City Thunder to win four straight playoff games against high-level competition, with Game 3 coming on the road especially.
Though that doesn’t mean none of it matters or that you can just dismiss a Timberwolves win entirely.
This postseason, Mark Daigneault has been rigid in his starting lineup. Deploying both Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein together in the first five, flanked by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort and Jalen Williams.
Oklahoma City hopes Game 3 was just a one-off; they will largely be right. Not only have the Thunder always responded exceptionally well to losses all season and have yet to drop two straight in the postseason, but it wasn’t but 48 hours ago that the NBA world wrote the swan song of the Timberwolves after they suffered back-to-back beatdowns in Bricktown.
An adjustment the Thunder can make to curb some of the success the Timberwolves found in Game 3 is by shifting to a solo-big lineup to start games.
This is a swap that head coach Mark Daigneault has been willing to go to out of halftime, most recently on Saturday where the Thunder’s 11-2 run out of intermission with Isaiah Joe starting in place for Hartenstein was the biggest sign of life for Oklahoma City since the 10:00 minute mark in the opening frame.
“We keep everything fluid for a reason, so that it’s not these seismic events when we change a lineup at any point in time. We changed the starting lineup during the season, coming out of halftime,” Daigneault said. “We changed the rotation almost nightly in the regular season and playoffs. We try to normalize that for situations where we can be opportunistic.”
That run was quickly swept away by a 20-4 burst by the Timberwolves out of a Chris Finch timeout, but it highlighted what remained true since before the series began. The single-big lineup is the Thunder’s best group.
Tossing defensive-ace and play-finishing guard Cason Wallace in the starting lineup alongside Gilgeous-Alexander, the Santa Clara product, Holmgren and Dort would allow Oklahoma City the best chance to combat Minnesota’s quick fixes on the defensive end.
With Wallace sharing the floor with Holmgren as the lone center this postseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder have played 238 such possessions to the tune of a +30.2 point differential, This includes a 131.9 points per possession offensively (99th percentile) and 101.7 points allowed per possession on the defensive end (98th percentile).
With the Timberwolves content to pack the paint and force the Thunder to beat them on the outside,, the five-out spacing this group provides could get Oklahoma City started on the right foot. Of course, that is largely shot-making dependent, but not only does it give the Thunder an additional shooter on the floor, but another player capable of playing off the catch and thriving in secondary actions to break down the Timberwolves’ defense.
Defensively, this group also allows the Thunder to swarm ball handlers and jump passing lanes to force more turnovers and limit sluggish half-court play that isn’t conducive to Oklahoma City’s style.
Oklahoma City can stick with its traditional look without much pushback, but this is a group worth exploring.
Song of the Day: Purple Rain by Prince (1984)
