Oklahoma City Thunder: Can the Thunder Make The Playoffs?
By Greg Chin
The Oklahoma City Thunder has had a rough start to the season. It started in the offseason when the reigning MVP Kevin Durant suffered a right foot fracture that would sideline him for six to eight weeks.
It didn’t take much to surmise that the Thunder would be in a tough spot without Durant, but the silver lining was that they could still rely on their dynamic point guard Russell Westbrook.
That is, until he too, went down with an injury. After putting up 38 points in the first game of the season, Russ fractured his hand against the Los Angeles Clippers the very next game. He would miss the next 14 games of the season.
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It left the Thunder without two of their best players, and one by one, the already depleted Thunder started losing more players to injury. Once considered a pre-season favourite to win the Western Conference, they finished November with a 5-12 win record.
Now though, things are on the up. Durant and Westbrook are both back from their injuries, and all the talk is on whether the Thunder can win enough of their remaining games to make the playoffs.
The Dallas Mavericks made the Western Conference playoffs last season as the eighth seed with a 49-win record, and many analysts have used that as a benchmark for how many wins is necessary to make the playoffs in the West.
The Thunder have played 11 of their 17 games so far against their own conference, leaving another 24 games against Eastern Conference teams unplayed. A quick glance at the Eastern Conference standings will show that the bottom half of the East is very weak, and the same could be said of the bottom 10 teams.
With both their superstars back, the Thunder can almost guarantee wins against the following teams: Orlando Magic (twice), Boston Celtics (once), Indiana Pacers (twice), Charlotte Hornets (twice), New York Knicks (once), Detroit Pistons (once), Philadelphia 76ers (once).
The Thunder will be heavy favorites in those games, and barring some off-night or a career performance by a member of the opposing team, the games should result in a win for the Thunder. That’s 10 almost-guaranteed wins for the Thunder.
The teams that are currently below the Thunder in the Western Conference are: the Los Angeles Lakers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Utah Jazz. It speaks volumes that there are teams worse than the Thunder through the first 19-20 games, especially since the Thunder were missing up to five key players at one stretch.
You could add those teams to the list of “most likely to win” games for the Thunder. Another nine wins added to the tally.
That brings the Thunder’s win total up to 24 wins in 31 games. To reach the magic 49-win mark, they would have to win 25 of their remaining 51 games. That’s a .490 winning percentage – a completely plausible win ratio for the full-strength Thunder.
For those that have forgotten what this team is capable of, they pulled off a .72 win percentage last season – and that was without Westbrook for 36 of those games.
It’s premature to count Oklahoma City Thunder out of the playoff race. Yes, the West is tough and there will always be a team who undeservedly misses out. The Thunder will have two of the top-10 players in the league for the remaining 65 games, firing at full strength. They’ll be just fine.
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