Could the Thunder Make a Run at a Playoff Spot?
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When the final buzzer sounded Monday night in Boston, Oklahoma City was behind on the scoreboard.
However, the score was closer than many would have predicted prior to the season, and even just before tip-off. The Thunder entered the contest as 12-point underdogs facing the team who now owns the title of NBA’s best record. Boston entered on a six game winning streak, which has now led them to surpass the Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings.
However, it was clear from the opening whistle, OKC wasn’t going to let the Celtics win easily, in fact until the fourth quarter it wasn’t clear if Boston would escape the scrappy game with a win.
In the end the Celtics exited victorious and OKC’s short win streak faded, but the win required a fourth quarter comeback. A quarter where Boston outscored OKC 37-26 en route to a four-point win.
OKC didn’t bow down to the Championship hopeful Celtics, and they’ve yet to bow down to any opponent despite facing a challenging early schedule. OKC has faced a top-10 strength of schedule to begin the season, and it doesn’t get any easier in a wide open Western Conference.
The Thunder may have a losing record sitting at 6-8 following Monday's challenging loss, but this OKC team isn’t anywhere close to the Thunder team that played last season. OKC is battling.
In OKC’s eight losses it is losing by just eight points per loss on average with just three losses of 10 or more points.
After an opening couple of weeks where the team struggled to click and play cohesive, OKC is slowly figuring it out and giving each team a run despite the final outcome. Now the team is just 14 games into a grueling 82 game schedule, but nothing is out of the picture for what this team can earn.
As Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues on his tear of scoring 30-plus each night, and showing now signs of slowing down, the ceiling is high, a team that could wreak havoc on the playoff race in the future.
OKC’s record currently places them in a five-way tie for ninth in the Western Conference, but it also places them just 3.5 games back from the top of the Conference. On the flip side of that coin OKC is also just four games in front of the Rockets for last place in the conference.
OKC also clocked a 6-8 record in its first 14 games last season, before losing its next eight games — and 11 of its next 13 — en route to finishing the season with 24 wins. OKC had a clear goal in mind last season, one which they accomplished in earning the No. 2 overall pick, but this season OKC may have different aspirations despite the constant noise around the race for this year’s No. 1 pick.
With 68 games left in the season OKC could wind up anywhere in the standings, but they are already proving that they can hang with the best teams in the league while fielding one of the youngest rosters in the NBA.
The Western Conference as it sits now, is any team’s for the taking, OKC has been competitive up to this point in the season and could be considered dark horses to earn a bid into the play-in game, depending on roster health.
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