OKC Thunder conclude their road trip in Phoenix
By Yams
The Keys to Success
Stay focused
The Thunder, for all their talent, have lost games against some really bad teams. It may be pessimistic of me to believe that a team sitting firmly at the number five spot in the Western Conference could possibly lose to a lottery team, but there is a ton of precedent. They have managed to let bottom feeders beat them simply because they didn’t care enough to show up to the game.
The Thunder have already beaten the Warriors, Rockets, Raptors, Spurs, and Timberwolves this season. But they’ve also lost to the Nets, Magic, Mavericks, and Kings. They could be sitting in a top-four spot in the West right now if they hadn’t lost to those teams.
Have a solid defensive first quarter
Over the last five games, the Thunder haven’t won any first quarters.
The defense has been a particular problem there. They’ve allowed a cumulative 170 points over their last five games in the first quarter, which is not good. They did end up winning three of said five games but they could’ve very easily have won all five of those games.
Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.
Build upon their last 10 games
The Thunder have truly found themselves over the last 10 games, going 8-2 in them (could’ve easily been 10-0 though). The Thunder’s offense was booming and the defense was still pretty solid.
The Thunder had an offensive rating of 117.2 during that span (best in the NBA), shooting 51.4 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from 3. Their defensive rating was 105.5, which is pretty solid.
If they want to win tonight, all they have to do is simply continue doing what they’ve been doing recently.