OKC Thunder In the news: travel, injury, fatigue taking toll

Potential trade targets for the OKC Thunder have landed elsewhere while travel, injury and fatigue take their toll.

This time of year is commonly referred to as the ‘dog days’ as teams drag their weary bodies to the All-Star Break. As witnessed, injuries have occurred to core contributors.

Roberson Injury:

Andre Roberson may not rank on the same level as the loss of DeMarcus ‘Boogie’ Cousins, John Wall or Kevin Love, yet his loss is no less tragic for the OKC Thunder.

Prior to Roberson’s injury the OKC Thunder were playing the best basketball of the season. Roberson got injured  in the middle of a game which would extend their win streak to seven. Although they won the next game it was likely inspired by emotion and the growing rivalry with the Sixers.

Since then, the team has lost three games in a row and had issues on both sides of the court.

Travel:

Adding to the team being exhausted is the travel they are enduring.

When scribes mention SOS they are referring to strength of schedule. Several of the pundits refer to SOS when explaining why teams suddenly go on win streaks due to easier schedules.

Or conversely, when a team may lose games they should win. It could be due to dealing with travelling through multiple time zones.

The body takes time to recover from travel, so it can take a toll. Certainly this week has been particularly difficult for OKC.  As Fred Katz notes the team traveled through five different time zones for five different games.

Although the loss of Roberson ranks at the top of this list, the travel is playing a factor.

Schedule:

This particular week is brutal for many squads who are playing back-to-back sets and also playing at noon or early afternoon.

Eight teams play at noon:

• Blazers at Celtics
• Bucks at Nets
• Hawks at Knicks
• Grizzlies at Raptors

The OKC Thunder host the Lakers at 2:00 p.m. and the Hornets and Suns play at 3:00 p.m.

(all times eastern standard time)

Out of these 12 squads three teams in particular have it the worst, the Thunder, Raptors and Bucks who all played back to back sets Thursday, Friday and also play Sunday.

Raptors fans are particularly unhappy since they can’t buy a Christmas Day game, have already completed all 14 opposite coast road games and also have to deal with this

Wondering why so many noon and early games are occurring on Sunday? Well, the NBA knows there is no use trying to compete for viewership during the Super Bowl.

Moving forward:

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

All teams go through ebbs and flows of adversity like the travel, schedule and injury. Navigating through those trials is what will make the squad stronger.

Including Sunday, OKC have six more games until the break. Other than Paul George and Russell Westbrook everyone will get time to recharge for a week.

The All-Stars will get three days only, but still time to recharge.

Additionally, the trade deadline is February 8 (next Thursday), so Sam Presti may still reach into his famous magician’s hat to add some depth to the roster.

Once the team returns they’ll have 23 games remaining. Of those 13 will occur on the road, four on the opposite coast (Hawks, Raptors, Celtics and Heat). Moreover, 14 of these teams are current playoff seeds.

So, Thunder Nation, cross your fingers the OKC Thunder can navigate these next six games to the break, count on Presti the Magician and come out laser focused for those final 23 games.

That’s it for in the news on Saturday February 3, see you back here tomorrow as TI preps for the game and for most Super Bowl Sunday immediately following the game.