{"id":126679,"date":"2025-03-03T13:06:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T18:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=126679"},"modified":"2025-03-03T13:22:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T18:22:32","slug":"thunder-defense-slipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/03\/thunder-defense-slipping\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The Thunder’s Defense Slipping a Cause for Concern?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s defense<\/a> has been stellar all year, as they have the best defense in the NBA. In certain aspects, their defense has been historic this year. The defense has been the Thunder’s identity for the past couple of seasons, and they pride themselves on that end of the floor. The Thunder are excellent at forcing turnovers and difficult shots. However, as of recently, the Thunder’s defense has been slipping over these past couple of games. Even though they have been 5-1 post-All-Star break, their defense has taken a significant step back.<\/p>\n

Pre-All-Star break, the Thunder were dominating every team on defense. They had the best defensive rating in the NBA at 104.5<\/a>, leading the league in steals per game at 10.9<\/a>. In addition, they led the league in opponents’ fast break points at 12.0<\/a> a game, as well as opponent points in the paint at 42.9<\/a>. However, after the All-Star break, the Thunder’s defense has slipped drastically. In the six games they have played post-All-Star break, their defensive rating is 116.9<\/a>, which is ranked 22nd in the NBA. In addition, they are 11th in steals at 9.3<\/a>, third in opponents’ fast break points at 12.2<\/a>, and 10th in opponent points in the paint at 47.0<\/a>. Everything the Thunder were number one in on defense or dominating teams in has fallen. Now the question becomes, should the Thunder be concerned with their defense slipping after the All-Star break?<\/p>\n

Is The Thunder’s Defense Slipping a Cause for Concern?<\/h2>\n

Why It Should be A Little Concerning<\/h3>\n

The Thunder’s identity all year has been their defense. This team takes pride in their suffocating defense every night. This is how this team is built to win by playing defense. Ultimately, this team is similar to those 2010s Golden State Warriors teams. Those teams would just beat you by going on an 18-0 run by hitting six straight threes to turn a four-point lead into a 22-point lead or a five-point deficit into a 13-point lead. While the Warriors team beat you with shooting, the Thunder beat teams with their defense. They could go on big runs and turn a close game into a blowout or come back in a game by forcing turnovers and forcing you into tough shots.<\/p>\n

However, this has not been the case in these six games post-All-Star break. This should be a little concerning for the Thunder because you are allowing other teams to gain confidence. Ultimately, teams don’t fear the Thunder’s defense as they used to at the beginning of the year. More teams are beginning to have confidence in saying hey, we can beat this defense. The worst thing a team can do is give another team confidence, and that is exactly what the Thunder have been doing with the opposing teams against their defense.<\/p>\n

Why The Thunder Shouldn’t Hit the Panic Button<\/h3>\n

While there should be a little concern on the Thunder’s part, there is no need to hit the panic button. There are a couple of reasons why they shouldn’t be too worried about their defense slipping recently. The first reason is they have too many good to great one-on-one defenders<\/a>. Lu Dort<\/a>, Alex Caruso<\/a>, and Cason Wallace<\/a> are all great point-of-attack defenders who can cause chaos on the defensive side of the ball, even against great offensive players. In addition, they have two great rim protectors, Chet Holmgren<\/a>, and Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a>, who can block or alter shots at the rim. Finally, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Jalen Williams<\/a> are great defenders as well. Overall, the team has no weaknesses on defense or players you can consistently attack.<\/p>\n

Another reason why their defense is slipping a little bit is the lack of focus. They are 10.5 games ahead of the first seed and have the first seed all but locked up. Their concern right now is working on certain things for the playoffs and remaining healthy. In addition, the teams they have played have all been hot from three in the first half against them. Some of the reasons why the Thunder’s defense is slipping are in their control, and others are out of their control. However, they are going to take the larger sample size of the dominating defense over the smaller sample size of the struggling defense.<\/p>\n

Is Their Offense Taking Off a Part of It?<\/h3>\n

The Thunder’s offense has been pretty solid throughout the year; however, it has taken a big leap post-All-Star break. The Thunders offense was sixth in offensive efficiency before the All-Star break at a rating of 117.3<\/a>. Post All-Star break that number has climbed to 127.9<\/a> and they have the best offense in the NBA during that span. It’s probably not a coincidence that at the same time, their offense takes off their defense slips a little bit. It is hard to consistently dominate both ways for a full 48-minute game and the Thunder could be using more energy on the offensive end. Nevertheless, this isn’t the main reason or only reason their defense has slipped.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

There are many reasons why the Thunder’s defense has slipped, like not being focused, not playing as aggressively, playing a hot team in that game, or focusing more on the offense. However, the Thunder shouldn’t be too concerned with their recent defensive play because there is a larger sample size of how dominant this defense was. Finally, come playoff time, the Thunder must get back to their dominating defense as opposed to the defense that has been on display for the last six games. If they fail to do that, then their hopes of winning a championship will be much harder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s defense has been stellar all year, as they have the best defense in the NBA. In certain aspects, their defense has been historic this year. The defense has been the Thunder’s identity for the past couple of seasons, and they pride themselves on that end of the floor. The Thunder are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":126712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,22],"tags":[2037,4776,4292,993,4609,4462,1489],"class_list":["post-126679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-alex-caruso","tag-cason-wallace","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-jalen-williams","tag-lu-dort","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126720,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126679\/revisions\/126720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}