Scoreboard watching through to week’s end:
Thursday, March 5th:
Thunderous Intentions will keep on top of this and look at the situation weekly as the teams move toward season end. In the interim, Thursday night features Denver, Houston and the LA Clippers in action. The most compelling of those games is the Clippers and Rockets because they are playing each other.
A Houston loss would have implications for the OKC Thunder as it would reduce the margin they need to catch the Rockets. Remember the Thunder owns the season series over Houston so if they were to finish the season tied in those fourth and fifth seeds, for example, OKC would win home court by virtue of that tiebreaker.
Friday, March 6th:
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
The Thunder are back in action Friday facing the Knicks who as mentioned beat the Rockets this week so can’t be treated lightly.
The other two games on Friday to keep a close eye on are the Jazz facing the (injury-riddled) Celtics and the Mavericks playing the Grizzlies who are desperate to keep that eighth seed.
Saturday, March 7th:
Four teams on the West ladder play on Friday all facing lottery teams:
- Rockets at Hornets
- Jazz at Pistons
- Nuggets at Cavaliers
- Grizzlies host the Hawks
Of those games, the ones of greatest interest to Thunder Nation are the teams directly in front of OKC (Jazz/Rockets).
Sunday, March 8th:
Finishing out week 20, three of the 2-7 seeds and the Thunder are in action.
- Lakers vs. Clippers (the make-up game)
- Mavericks host Pacers
- Rockets host Magic
All three of the above games are of interest to OKC. Dallas is right behind OKC in the standings, the goal is to catch the Rockets (or tie) and ideally avoid the Clippers for as long as possible.
Yet, the most important game for Thunder fans is the Thunder versus Celtics match. Of note, Jaylen Brown is out a week after sustaining a hamstring injury in the loss to the Nets.
Gordon Hayward is also nursing a sore knee, Kemba Walker just returned to the lineup versus Brooklyn and is on a minutes restriction.
This means the Celtics are clearly not at 100 percent. Granted, no team is but with nine games on tap versus elite teams in the stretch schedule stealing a game in Boston would be huge for OKC.
To help you plan your schedules T.I. will offer up a watch list each week through to season end.
Have a great day — and happy scoreboard watching!