Thunder Ready For Rockets
Billy Donovan had one goal on Friday. Make it out of the last seeding game without any more injuries.
With nothing to play for, most of the starters were on the bench before the second half. The exception was Dennis Schroder.
Schroder, who started in place of Chris Paul (wrist sprain) played over 25 minutes in his first game back since leaving Orlando to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. Schroder scored 17 points and went 6 of 12 from the field, he along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were two of the only Thunder players who had a good night shooting.
The other was Hamidou Diallo, who continues to show he will play hard no matter what the circumstances are. Diallo had a couple of beautiful drives to the basket and scored a career-high. Diallo is going to be essential when the playoffs start on Tuesday.
The Thunder can't rely on the usual suspects to pull them through against the Rockets. Houston is second in scoring average with 118 points per game. There will be at least a couple of games where Oklahoma City will have to outscore the Rockets.
The Thunder will also need a lot of minutes out of Andre Roberson. Donovan said before the start of Friday's game that Dort, who is dealing with a knee sprain, is not a guarantee for game one.
If he can't go then, Roberson will resume a familiar role of guarding James Harden. Donovan says Roberson is getting closer to where he needs to be as far as chasing around top-level NBA players.
