Today at 3:30 p.m. ET the Oklahoma City Thunder, up 2-1 in their Western Conference semifinal series with the Los Angeles Clippers, will aim to take a commanding 3-1 lead with a second straight win on the Staples Center floor. Watch Game 4 on ABC, or live stream it free by clicking this link. Thunder fans may tune in to the radio broadcast on WWLS 98.1, while Clippers fans can do the same on KFWB 980.
The Clippers have thus far proven unable to contain Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, so head coach Doc Rivers is planning to let them roam while shutting out the rest of the OKC cast. "We can't then give Caron Butler wide-open 3s," Clippers Rivers said. "Serge Ibaka has yet to put the ball on the floor. I'd like to see him dribble one time."
A 3-1 deficit is extremely tough to overcome, so Rivers is also trying to emphasize defense transforming into transition buckets. "What we didn't get is stops," Rivers said.
"When we get multiple stops, we get in transition and we get easy baskets. In this series so far we really haven't gotten in transition at all and they've taken that away from us. We got to do a better job of getting stops in a row so we can get some kind of offensive rhythm in transition."
While the plan to stop the supporting cast may be a good move, the Durant-Westbrook combo could still be too much to overcome. Westbrook has exploded in this series thanks to some adjustments he's making in his approach.
"I got into a rhythm and I'm trying to get into a routine," Westbrook said. "I'm trying to balance my game and it's tough at times, but as long as we are winning it's all good."
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