The Oklahoma City Thunder have a set philosophy when it comes to protecting a three-point lead in the waning moments of the game. The Thunder are going to foul to prevent the opponent from attempting a game-tying three-point shot. Despite their Game 1 second round loss to the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City is unlikely to move away from this strategy. Instead, they prefer to think about executing it better.
“I probably could have let (Aaron) Gordon dribble a couple of more times, run some more time off the clock,” Thunder wing Alex Caruso said. “But at the same time, we’ve talked about, ‘When in doubt, just make sure you get the foul done.'”
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault took the blame for how his team executed the strategy.
“The fouling up three, that’s on me,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think giving the foul and getting the foul executed is critical. So, if there is something to be learned from that, it’s probably giving it too early on my part. But that’s not on the players. They’re executing what I’m telling them to do.”
Thunder MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t have much issue with the strategy, because of how it’s worked in the past.
“It’s hard now because we lost, and it’s going to seem like we should have did the other thing obviously, because what we did led to a loss,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But we’ve been in that situation before, we’ve fouled, and we’ve won the game. And (Monday), it didn’t go in our favor.”
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