Apr 20, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) and forward Jalen Williams (8) celebrate against the Memphis Grizzlies during the second quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
The game is different in the NBA Playoffs. Half court offenses are paramount, defenses are suffocating and each possession has palatable tension.
One of the biggest differences in what you see during a February game in Charlotte vs a May game in the playoffs is the physicality.
The refs let more contact go, games are placed in a time machine that mirror 1980s’ physicality more so than the touch fouls we see in the modern game. It is a change that the Oklahoma City Thunder welcome, so long as the whistle is consistent.
In Round 2, as the Oklahoma City Thunder await its matchup, the team has talked all week about setting a tone physically in this next series.
“It’s great. It feels like how we used to play at the park. You know, there is no playing for a foul out there. You gotta play to get a bucket. If you played to get a foul at the park, somebody would take the ball and go home. So, I am all for it.” Thunder center Chet Holmgren said at practice this week. “The only thing is, there is no memo before the game, of ‘this is how we are going to call the game’. So I feel like we learned that kinda in Game 3 of the last series. You can’t go out there and feel out how the refs are going to call the game…I feel like we have to go out and set the tone on how they need to call the game.”
These sentiments, of forcing the issue and dictating how a game is called, were shared by Holmgren’s front court partner the following day at another Thunder practice.
“I think you gotta embrace [the physicality] to an extent. At the end of the day, that is kinda the refs jobs to figure out where the line is. We just match the physicality, or we try to come in and set the tone in the physicality department. At the end of the day, the refs control that aspect of how physical the game is allowed to be and we just have to adjust to that,” Isaiah Hartenstein said.
Setting the tone is a good goal for the Oklahoma City Thunder to have and a formula they are used to. Oklahoma City played a physical brand of basketball the entire regular season to the tune of one of the most foul laden teams in the NBA. So far this postseason, OKC has been cited for the sixth least personal fouls per game. That is a direct contrast to the Thunder being hit for the sixth most personal fouls per game in the regular season.
But what tangible things can you look for to set a tone of physicality?
“I like to do it picking up the ball. Just being physical with my own ball pressure, pick and roll execution. Offensively, we can bump people a little harder,” Defensive ace Cason Wallace explained.
This is great insight from one of the Thunder’s hounding defensive guards. Other ways include, putting a body on drivers and in the post, as well as hard box outs to battle on the glass in addition to the ways Wallace divulged.
“I just think it’s like intensity on each possession. I think that is where the physicality comes from. I don’t think the teams are going into the games saying we are going to try to be more physical in these exact situations,” Head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Everybody is playing every possession with maximum effort and intentionality and when you play the same team over and over again there is just like a cuvlmative edge that builds over time. The familiarity and competitiveness of a series as it goes deeper, that just tends to be how it is.”
No matter who the matchup ends up being, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be aiming to bring the physicality required to punch its ticket to the Western Conference Finals.
