Concerning OKC Thunder development hands the Spurs a much-needed wakeup call

The NBA Playoffs are about controlling what you can control, and the Spurs didn't do a great job of that in Game 3. They allowed the OKC Thunder to attempt a concerning number of high-quality three-pointers, and they converted on 44.7% of those.

Now, there is an explanation for this. The Spurs are aggressive when guarding Thunder ball handlers, either getting into driving gaps or throwing out double teams. Sure, it can work at times, but it also led them to scramble to rotate onto shooters, and that's where the issues came. OKC got a handful of open looks from these situations.

San Antonio got away with it in Game 1 as the Thunder missed a lot of quality shots from distance, but they've paid for it in their last two matchups. If the Spurs want to tie this series up on Sunday night, there has to be an adjustment in their defensive attack to counter this.

The Spurs' three-point defense is making role players look like All-Stars

Game 3 was such an uncharacteristic one for the Spurs, especially given how much their bench got outplayed. For a team known to have amazing depth, San Antonio's reserves lost the scoring battle, posting just 23 points to OKC's 76.

The reason for that is simple. Jared McCain, Jalen Williams, and Alex Caruso looked like All-Stars at times tonight because of their efficiency from downtown. They combined for ten total three-point makes on 47% shooting. The majority of those were off-catch-and-shoot opportunities.

Let's look at Alex Caruso specifically in this series. He drained at least three long-range shots in each matchup so far, even putting in eight out of fourteen attempts in Game 1. Again, way too many of his attempts are coming off of simple catch-and-shoot plays.

While Caruso wasn't great in the regular season as a long-range shooter, he did turn it up in the playoffs. He's 47% so far, so gambling on leaving him open just can't continue into the next few games.

It's time for the Spurs to shift their strategy

Now, I can't blame Mitch Johnson for his early series approach. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a tough one-on-one cover, so throwing aggressive double teams and getting into his driving gaps does make some sense.

But the issue is that OKC's roster is filled with solid three-point shooters like McCain, Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren, Jaylin Williams, and others. They've been punishing the Spurs for scrambling out of those double teams with smart passes along the perimeter to find those quality shots.

There has to be a solution going into Game 4. The Spurs had every advantage in health, free-throw shooting, and home-court advantage but couldn't pull out a win because of the easy three-pointers they gave up. Mitch Johnson needs to get creative at this point if San Antonio wants to tie things up on Sunday evening.

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