Game Day Preview: OKC Thunder face new era twin towers, Oct 6

The OKC Thunder play their second preseason game tipping off against the New Orleans Pelicans

UPDATE: Russell Westbrook will start

Game two of the preseason offers the OKC Thunder a first glimpse at the retooled New Orleans Pelicans. Unlike the Thunder, the Pelicans made few roster changes this offseason. In spite of their constancy, the Pelicans are still adapting on how best to capitalize on two of the Association’s best bigs.

Russell Westbrook practiced with the team Thursday. While Westbrook’s status for tonight’s preseason game remains uncertain, this  is a positive development.  Steven Adams who suffered a tough fall courtesy of a flagrant James Harden foul is fine and pending the team exercising caution should be good to go.

First Game Lessons:

Preseason games are meant to implement new systems, integrate new teammates and isolate areas to improve. For Coach Billy Donovan preseason offers further challenges given the arrival of super stars Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. In their first outing Anthony and George defied the critics with Melo in particular looking sharp as he scored 19 points in 19 minutes. Rather, the issue for the Thunder was immediately apparent when the team went deep into their bench.

Raymond Felton started in place of  Westbrook who remained out after his PRP injection. In hindsight, Felton looks to be in need of the extra minutes given his offseason bulge. Although there were a few standouts like rookie Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant and Daniel Hamilton, on a whole the reserves were no match for the Rockets.

My cohort Tony Heim‘s article 5 Takeaways from the Rockets game offers additional insight while new TI scribe Cale Michael served up the post game recap.

New Orleans also lost their preseason opener in spectacular fashion. After registering 46 points in the first quarter, the Pelicans scored just 63 points the remainder of the game.

Preseason Perspective:

Many pundits claimed the Rockets win pointed to how superior the Houston squad is. But, let’s not forget the Thunder were missing their MVP and quite likely the top two reserves in Patrick Patterson and Alex Abrines. To put this in perspective the Thunder starters held the advantage early over Houston despite not having Westbrook. And, the equivalent for Houston would be not playing Eric Gordon or PJ Tucker. Gordon scored 21 points while Tucker’s 7 boards and defensive presence made an immediate impact for the Rockets.

My point is these preseason games are meant to tweak issues and introduce new concepts. Putting an undue emphasis on wins or losses in preseason isn’t wise. The better use of these games is to pinpoint what works and where additional effort is required. Furthermore, these matches offer an opportunity to test rotational chemistry.