Return Trip to Golden State a Chance for OKC to Recapture Last Year's Strength
Saturday brings the first rematch of the season for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
OKC will head west to the Chase Center in San Fransisco to take on the Golden State Warriors just four days after falling 106-98 to the Warriors in the Paycom Center.
And while it was hard to discern a whole lot about the Thunder last year considering the unique circumstances, the team was pretty good in one specific area — improving the second time they played a team.
Over the first 40 games of the season, when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was still active before his football injury, the Thunder took on 15 different “rematches”.
In total, the Thunder finished with a plus-53 scoring margin in the second game of each leg, averaging a 3.5 point per game improvement from game one to game two.
On six different occasions, the Thunder turned around a loss in game one to emerge victorious in the second meeting, getting one over on Orlando, New Orleans, San Antonio, Houston, Minnesota and Dallas.
Oklahoma City’s success improving against competition throughout the season was a testament to Mark Daigneault and his coaching staff, as well as the players’ willingness to listen to the coaches fight to get better each day, an approach the Thunder pride themselves on.
The improvement was even more impressive considering the outrageous number of different starting lineups (30) OKC used last season, making it even harder for the team to settle into steady rotations to build chemistry.
Oklahoma City will have a similar problem this year, as Daigneault said after OKC’s game against the Lakers on Wednesday that the team has no rotations. But if Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and Darius Bazley stay healthy, the Thunder will have a real chance to build chemistry and cohesion, allowing them to steadily improve throughout the season.
And that’s what the Thunder need to do throughout this year, as they’re building for the future, to show the team is on the right path as they add more talent through the draft.
Saturday night against the Warriors will present Daigneault and the Thunder their first chance of the year to show that learning throughout the year will be a strength for this year’s Oklahoma City squad as well.
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