As you can see in Coach Nick's chat with Hoopchalk above, there are a myriad of reasons as to why the Thunder were beaten by the Warriors, especially with such an advantage down the stretch. They do a good job of analyzing the Thunder's offensive follies and specifically those of Westbrook. But I'd like to take a bit of a different approach and analyze some critical errors by Kendrick Perkins.
Kendrick Perkins
Despite one of his best offensive games in years, Perk's defense collapses down the stretch.
Play 1:
Here, Kendrick Perkins goes out on the pick and roll to provide needless pressure at the top of the key. I don't see why he couldn't have waited a few feet back. Curry makes the obvious pass to Landry, who gets an easy bucket.
Play 2:
I shouldn't need to tell you what goes wrong here. Perk completely forgets that his matchup exists, allowing Carl Landry the easy lay-in.
Play 3:
A repeat of what happens in play 1. Perk goes up to provide needless pressure on Thompson at the top of the key, Landry gets open rolling to the basket.
These were three critical plays down the stretch, and all basically resulted in FREE POINTS for the Warriors. All were almost entirely Perk's fault. I appreciate his tenacity and his great help defense, but you just can't go out and defend every single screen at the source. Sometimes you've got to play smart and stay back in your area of the floor.
Anyway, if you haven't yet, definitely check out the video above. Do you have any reasons of your own as to why the Thunder lost?
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