Two weeks of training camp and two exhibition games have transpired for the Thunder thus far this preseason. Leading up to training camp, there were questions surrounding the new identity of this team both offensively and defensively. The Thunder has utilized time during training camp and non-record-threatening games to build up a solid foundation and find its footing. Now, with two exhibition games under its belt, the Thunder looks to keep progressing in the right direction on Monday in Dallas for their penultimate preseason test.

In the first preseason game against Dallas in Tulsa’s BOK center, the Thunder got off to a hot offensive start led by center, Steven Adams, who was not widely known for his abilities behind the arc and yet knocked down a triple in the opening play of the game to the fans’ surprise. This illustrated that things were going to look a little different for the Thunder this season. It proved a new Thunder offense where everyone will be able to create for each other with constant ball-movement and off-ball player actions which played out well in a 15-point victory over Dallas on Tuesday. However, on the defensive end, the Thunder allowed a whopping 50 three-point attempts from the Mavs.

The Thunder took that lesson into Thursday, when it faced off against the NBL’s New Zealand Breakers. In a strong response to Coach Donovan’s ‘heels above the three-point line’ call, the Thunder only allowed 27 three-point attempts from the Breakers and eight makes.

“One of those things that we had against Dallas, I thought we had some short closeouts, and not getting all the way up to the three-point shooters and then we did a better job because New Zealand didn’t take as many (three-pointers) against Memphis as Dallas did against us but they still were trying to get them up and I thought we did a pretty good job of being up and contesting better,” said Donovan.