Key to Spurs' success against Thunder is in the middle
Three of the NBA’s top four offensive teams have one thing in common: incredible talents as their primary ball handler.
The Warriors, Thunder and Cavaliers — who ranked first, second and fourth, respectively, this regular season — boast a “who’s who” of brilliant scorers and playmakers.
The Spurs, meanwhile, finished third with a heavy dose of 3-pointers but without multiple perimeter drivers and scorers to get them those looks.
How?
Just follow this map:
By getting to the middle of the floor, the Spurs can take advantage of whatever the defense is trying to take away. Both corners are one pass away. As are both wings and the top of the court. That is not the case when driving at an angle below the block.
The worst angle the Spurs take, in terms of points per chance, is when they drive to the rim from the left. That’s because they have just one left-handed player, and Manu Ginobili, 38, is not the finisher he once was.
But even when they angle from the right, they still drive middle using their left hands. It sets up the 3s that have been so crucial to their success, and it also creates better attack angles from the wing area. Defenses will over-commit to preventing those middle drives, giving the right-handed drives a better line to the rim.
In their second-round series against the Thunder, the Spurs are getting to the spots they want often enough but still have to make shots and drive the ball.
OKC’s size inside is influencing those finishes at the rim, and the Spurs’ best mid-range shooter, LaMarcus Aldridge, has made 22 of his 60 shots (36.7 percent) in the last three games after shooting 33 of 44 (75 percent) in the first two games.
When the Spurs get to the middle, they have chances at the rim. If the Thunder take them away, they kick the ball out to shooters. And if those shooters are closed out “hot,” guys like Aldridge are left open as the clock winds down.
It’s a make-or-miss league, as coaches say, and that adage will likely be evident in Thursday’s Game 6.
