Playoff Preview: Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City Thunder are set to face the Houston Rockets in the first round after Russell Westbrook’s historic season.
Russell Westbrook has done it and now the Oklahoma City Thunder have their eyes on a bigger prize–the NBA Playoffs.
On Sunday, Westbrook finally passed Oscar Robertson for the most triple-doubles in NBA history.
Now that Westbrook has achieved the history he was chasing the team can now focus on the playoffs.
The Thunder now know they are going to face the Houston Rockets in the first round.
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In the game against the Denver Nuggets, Westbrook’s clutch three-pointer from 40 feet away eliminated the Nuggets from playoff contention.
In the series against the Rockets, the Thunder are going to have to focus on defense and running the players off the three-point line.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Rockets are known for their three-pointers and the rate they make them. They have set the NBA record for most three-pointers in a season (1,162 through 81 games, shattering the mark of 1,077 set by the Golden State Warriors last season).
Houston is looking forward to a third straight playoff matchup with the Warriors and will be looking to get over the hump after being eliminated by Golden State in the Western Conference Finals in 2015 and in the first round a year ago.
The Thunder want to disrupt their dreams. OKC will have to run its offense through Westbrook if they have a shot.
The offense is not a problem in terms of the fact that they have a go-to scorer, but the fact is the Thunder cannot shoot the three like the Rockets can and that is actually the Thunder’s biggest weakness.
The Thunder have made 677 threes and Rockets have made 1,162, which again is the most ever in NBA history.
With that being said, the Thunder know what they have to take away the most.
The way that they can do that is force the Rockets into turning the ball over to limit their possessions and affect the pace of the game.
The Rockets and the Thunder have the same nearly the amount of turnovers per game during the season (Houston averages 15.2 and the Thunder 15.0), but the point guard battle will be the one to watch between James Harden and Westbrook.
Whoever makes the fewest mistakes and puts their teammates in the best position will have their team win the series.
If the game goes up and down, that will favor the Rockets because that helps Harden come down the court with the shooters streaking to his side. That will spell trouble for the Thunder.
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Harden will also be a primary focus for the Thunder. That Westbrook will be guarding him after a season-long battle for MVP will just be an extra incentive for both players during this series.
Harden’s move to point guard has allowed us to be able to see this first-round matchup between the two best players in the league this year. Harden averaged a double-double for the season with 29.1 points a game and 11.2 assists, and don’t forget about his 8.1 rebounds.
Those numbers would win you the MVP award most years, but with Westbrook doing what he did that is just not enough.
The winner of this series will either play against the San Antonio Spurs-Memphis Grizzlies first-round winner. Houston and Oklahoma City need to advance for their own reasons.
The Thunder want to prove they do not miss Kevin Durant and the Rockets want to beat the Golden State Warriors badly.
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This series will probably be the most intriguing matchup in the first round and it should be epic from start to finish.