Isaiah Joe’s Playoff Moment for OKC Thunder Still on the Horizon

Oklahoma City’s dominant regular season has translated to the postseason by way of another first round sweep. A year after taking care of the New Orleans Pelicans in four games, the Thunder handled the Memphis Grizzlies in identical fashion.

A perfect sweep is dominant — there’s no real critiques to take away from that first round series. But each game had a different feel, and Oklahoma City was certainly far from perfect. The Thunder suffered a massive Game 3 deficit, and sent the hobbled Grizzlies down a star packing. There’s room for growth — especially in the shooting category.

Oklahoma City did not shoot the ball well in its opening series, and with each series to come, the floor will shrink even more. With the Clippers and Nuggets on the horizon, the Thunder will need role players to step up in a big way. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren took on a secondary star role in the first round, while Alex Caruso won the fanbase over entirely. Don’t be surprised if Isaiah Joe’s chance to make a name for himself in the postseason is right around the corner, too.

Joe had a highly efficient first round series, but Oklahoma City was winning by so much so often that his play often flew under the radar. In the four-game sweep, he averaged 8.5 points per game on 52.2% from the floor, 42.1% from 3-point range, and a perfect 100% from the charity stripe.

There's no doubt about it, Joe excelled in his role off the bench in round one. He did exactly what Oklahoma City needed him to do. He scored in double figures during the last two games, and drilled at least one triple in each outing. He never exceeded 20 minutes per game, but still gave the Thunder some solid minutes.

But one of these intense playoff games, Joe is due for an outburst of triples. He has multiple 30-point outings this season, and has single-handedly helped the Thunder shoot opponents out of games. When the defense is this physical, and team's are keyed in on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City will absolutely need Joe to play heavy minutes occasionally.

Oklahoma City needs him to keep excelling in his role and knock down open triples. But when the time comes, he could have a chance to play the unlikely hero.

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