Brooks coaching part of Thunder’s problems vs. Heat

[Big Bid'Ness]

Fromrobasketballtalk

Let’s be clear about this up front — Oklahoma City is not down 2-1 in the NBA finals because of Scott Brooks alone. First and foremost Miami has brought its best defensive focus and intensity for two games now, and when they do they can even slow the Thunder. Plus, Miami has that LeBron James guy and it turns out he’s pretty good.

But Brooks is part of the problem and a big part of the solution if the Thunder are going to come back in this series.

But with how he’s coached in the finals, he may regret shooting down a three-year, $11 million contract offer.

The most obvious mistake was sitting both Durant and Westbrook the final four minutes of the fourth quarter. Durant had picked up his fourth foul and Brooks sat him, as is tradition. (We can debate if that is a good tradition — you are sitting him now so he doesn’t get a fifth foul so you have to sit him, basically you’re punishing yourself now for what might happen.) Here’s an idea — if Durant has gotten in foul trouble the last two games covering LeBron James, don’t have him cover LeBron James.

At the time of that foul Westbrook made a couple bad plays and Brooks sat him, too.

Miami went on a 15-3 run and took the lead.

“I took (Durant) out because he had the foul trouble right there,” Brooks said after the game in a televised interview. “And Russell… Russell had a bad stretch for three or four possessions. I just took him out to kind of calm him down and put him right back in the game. I’ve done it before.”

With those two out the Thunder scored 7 points on their 11 possessions, and one of them was the lucky Derek Fisher four-point play. The offense died and the Heat were right back in the game.

The bigger issue for me goes back to the Thunder’s core lineup that plays Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins at the same time. It doesn’t work. It didn’t work at the start of the last two games because Ibaka wanted to be protecting the rim and not out at the three-point line chasing Shane Battier, and the result was two 17-point games for Battier and fast starts for the Heat.

In Game 3 Brooks didn’t change the lineup but he did get Ibaka out better on Battier to start the game — and the result was a layup line for the Heat in the paint. They got shots at the rim off cuts and penetration, the Thunder could not stop them.

Perkins and Ibaka were +11 together in Game 3 but Ibaka never saw the court in the fourth quarter and the issues with the two big man lineup remain.

Brooks has got to get his best matchups on the floor and think more outside of the box. If Durant is in foul trouble you have to keep offense on the floor with Westbrook. You need to get Ibaka in the paint where he is a feared shot blocker. It’s crazy to think this guy bested Gregg Popovich last round, but it can be easier to do that when you have the best pieces on the board to move around. Now that it’s a real chess match he has to step up his game.

 

[adamu]

I hate to say it but brooks trusts his players almost too much, his team is too young and inexperienced to give them as much reign as hes done.

Id like to see the thunder guarding lebron as a team using that quickness we saw before and forget all this glory seeking 1v1 forcing them into doubles and giving lbj the easy kick.