The Houston Rockets putting Lu Dort’s defender in the paint did a few things to the Oklahoma City Thunder offense in the Game 5 114-80 Thunder loss.
Simply packing the paint made it more difficult for guards to drive in and find space.
Once they did, there was less need for another help defender to jump into the paint, limiting Oklahoma City’s ability to pass to an open man.
That open man was no longer Danilo Gallinari, who was tightly guarded all game after averaging almost 19 points over the first four games.
The open man was instead Lu Dort. He led the Thunder with 16 shots but only made three of them.
Houston limited the guards, forced Dort into a more prominent offensive role, and took Gallinari out of the game.
The Rockets played keep-away from Gallinari, limiting the power forward to just five shots. He didn’t make any. He scored just one point, which was on a technical free throw.
Excluding a game last year in which Gallinari scored one point in eight minutes of play, the last time he had scored one point or fewer was in 2014, which he did multiple times over his first two months back from ACL surgery.
“They’re obviously not coming off of him. They’re just sticking with him,” Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s been creating a lot of space for certain guys, but they’re not going to try to leave him or give him anything.”
As Houston forced Oklahoma City to go elsewhere for offense, there wasn’t any space to work with. The Thunder finished 29-for-92 from the field (31.5%) and made just seven of 46 3-point attempts (15.2%).
The Rockets shot 43% from the field and 39.6% from 3 on 48 attempts.
During the season, Gallinari shot 40% from 3 on seven attempts per game.
Taking him out of the equation and forcing the Thunder to go toward Dort, a 30% 3-point shooter, allowed the Rockets to stifle the Oklahoma City offense.
“I’ve gotta try to find ways to kind of incorporate him and help him as much as I can,” Donovan said.
“A lot of it’s gonna be found in the course of the game through movement, through ball movement and spacing. I think it’s more of a respect that Houston has for him certainly with the way they’re guarding him.”
