Thunder Aren’t Playing Intelligent Defense

I’m not wild with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s defensive game-plan. The Miami Heat are just shredding them in the paint, and I suspect a lot of it is because the Thunder are guarding the Heat too tightly on the perimeter and in pick-and-roll coverage. They have to lay off a little bit instead of trying so hard to pressure and trap.

To a certain extent, the Thunder are overreacting a bit to Shane Battier’s success in Games 1 and 2. When Battier was in the game, the Thunder were very scared to help off him. That led to more drives to the basket. A better strategy would have been to defend Battier the same way, guard the rim and assume Battier wouldn’t keep shooting 75 percent from three-point range.