Preview: Thunder look to win in LA for second straight night
Slow down Lou Williams
Much like Russell Westbrook last season, Lou Williams has been handed the keys to the LA offense. As the Clippers continue to struggle with injuries it appears Lou has the green light on any given possession.
Williams has had some brilliant performances since Patrick Beverley tore his meniscus, but he’s leaned on even more heavily in the absence of Austin Rivers. In his last seven outings, Williams has averaged 32 points with six rebounds, good enough to earn him the Western Conference Player of the Week.
Last night was the 18th time in his career that Lou Williams scored 30+ off the bench, tied for third most since 1983 pic.twitter.com/kpWIadTt51
— Basketball Reference (@bball_ref) January 3, 2018
Although Milos Teodosic has returned to fill the role of point guard, it will be critical that OKC puts a strong emphasis on containing Williams. If not he could almost single-handily carry them to victory.
Win the rebounding battle
Cleaning the glass is an important ingredient to any win, but even more so when going up against Jordan and Griffin.
Jordan in particular will likely be a handful for Steven Adams and the rest of the Thunders’ post players, as he is second in the league in rebounds with 15.1 per game. Of those 15, 4.4 of them come on the offensive end. As we know with Adams, these lead to second-chance opportunities that could easily swing the outcome of the game down the stretch.
DeAndre Jordan throws it down!#ItTakesEverything pic.twitter.com/dRcNTCGXB8
— NBA (@NBA) December 30, 2017
Adams isn’t too much farther down the list at 16th with 8.8 per game, but he can’t do it alone. Jerami Grant, Patrick Patterson and even Josh Huestis will have to box out Jordan on every shot attempt.
The Clippers are three spots below OKC in second-chance points with 14.1 per game. The Thunder will have to show that dominance on the boards on Thursday night to get the win.
Bring production off the bench
LA is riddled with injury, but they also have the benefit of two days rest. It will be important for Oklahoma City to outlast them down the stretch despite it being the second game of a back-to-back.
Oklahoma City has to get out and run at times to force Doc Rivers to go to his bench. Williams is the first man off the bench for the Clippers, but the faster OKC can make them turn to C.J. Williams or Wesley Matthews the better.
OKC has had its fair share of inconsistency off the bench this season – putting in fresh legs against a thin team can lead to extra second chance opportunities. The drop off in talent for the Clippers once they go into the bench is fairly steep. Iit will be up to guys like Raymond Felton, Josh Huestis, and Jerami Grant to come off the bench and outpace LAC.