If OKC is going to entertain any notion of winning a top two seed in the West and subsequent home court advantage in the second round of the playoffs–either a 9-1 or 10-0 stretch in the next ten games needs to get done as the Thunder currently reside 7.5 games behind Golden State and 5.5 games behind San Antonio.
Six road games, four home games. Yet, only two of the ten are against teams currently in my Top 12 power poll, with one of these being at Golden State on Feb 6th. Of the ten games, OKC will be a Vegas favorite in all of these games save the road game at Golden State.
Road games at Dallas on Jan 20th and at the NY Knicks on Jan 26th could be tricky if OKC’s supporting cast goes awol in either of those two games.
So–the margin is thin in the next ten games for OKC to make significant headway if you assume the game at Golden State will be extremely difficult to win. 9-1 is doable, but certainly not a cinch of any sort given the up and down play of Ibaka, Waiters, Kanter, and rookie Cam Payne.
With Durant-OKC is 28-8 this season, without him, 3-4. This speaks volumes whether you watch the games closely or not. Even with Westbrook’s continual rise since 2012 as a top seven player in the league, OKC as a team has regressed as far as being championship viable.
Not meaning this to be overly negative, just honest. For OKC to put itself in the position of championship viable it’s very simple for me, Durant, Westbrook, and Adams are pretty much known commodities every night. OKC knows what they’ll get from these three players. But as I’ve written before—it’s somewhat of a crapshoot what OKC will get on any given night from Ibaka, Waiters, Kanter, and Payne. These four players hold the key to this Thunder season if OKC seriously aspires to be anything beyond the third best team in the West.
OKC’s next ten games….. Jan. 20 Charlotte, Jan. 22 @ Dallas, Jan. 24 @ Brooklyn, Jan. 26 @ NY Knicks, Jan. 27 @ Minnesota, Jan. 29 Houston, Feb. 1 Washington, Feb. 3 Orlando, Feb. 6 @ Golden State, and Feb. 8 @ Phoenix