The Oklahoma City Thunder are looking to address their recent road woes by winning in Chicago tonight. The Thunder are again facing another hot Eastern Conference foe.
The biggest question being asked among Oklahoma City Thunder fans is: Why can’t the Thunder win games on the road this season? Russell Westbrook and company have a 14-6 home record and an 8-10 road record. However, the road woes haven’t been the struggle all season. In fact, the Thunder have won big road games in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston.
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So, why does it seem that the Thunder are a different team on the road? For one, the road losses have started to multiply since January. The Thunder dropped three-straight games last week against Milwaukee, Charlotte, and Houston. In those three games, the Thunder shot 46%, 43%, and 45% from the floor.
Shooting isn’t the problem for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even the three-point shot has been falling at a better rate than their 32% average. The defense is what’s becoming problematic. The Thunder have allowed an average of 111 points per game over the last four games. If you dive even deeper, the third quarter on the road has been the roughest for the Thunder. Last week during their three-game road swing, they allowed a total of 86 points during the third quarters of those games.
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Seemingly, all the Thunder really have to do is lock-it-up defensively. This goes back to Westbrook leading the charge at the point and head coach Billy Donovan playing to the matchups as he is known to do.
Despite the recent 2017 struggles the Thunder still aren’t far behind the league-leading Golden State Warriors. The 7th place Thunder can make up some ground with the season still in its adolescence. One way this can be accomplished is by tweaking the starting rotation.
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The first thing I would do is sit Domantis Sabonis and start Enes Kanter. I would also sit Victor Oladipo and start Alex Abrines. I would move Joffrey Lauvergne from the back of the bench to a more consistent backup to Kanter. Lauvergne and Jerami Grant would make up the backup Twin Towers.
The logic behind this is you have Kanter and Steven Adams on the floor together more consistently. You add consistent three-point shooting with Abrines; you also add bench scoring with Oladipo.
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Oladipo can create his own shot and have more room to operate without having a shooting point guard on the floor. Furthermore, with Sabonis on the floor with the second unit, he could get more touches and shots. Sabonis is going to be an exceptional player for the Thunder; however, his defense has to improve.
While it’s unlikely to see any twist to the Thunder starting five, Donovan will continue to mix and match lineups all the way to the postseason. Let’s just hope that it pays off the way it did last season for the Thunder.
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