OKC Thunder: Lu Dort headlines Canadian content in battle vs. Raptors
The last time the OKC Thunder won a game was March 31st and the opponent was the Toronto Raptors. At the time, it was the Raptors who held better odds to win the top pick in the 2021 draft.
Since then the Thunder has lost nine games in a row and the Raptors are 5-4 winning some matches they had no business to. Entering Sunday, OKC has improved their draft position odds dropping to the fifth-best odds. Toronto has the eighth-best odds but a win tonight will move them into the 10th seed in the East or the last berth for the play-in tournament.
The Raptors didn’t help the Thunder on Friday as they beat the Magic — the team the Thunder are trying to catch to drop into the fourth-best odds to nab the top draft pick of 2021.
In contrast, the Thunder were in Detroit facing a mishmash roster but still lost to the Pistons.
With that let’s dive into three keys for the match…
OKC Thunder vs. Raptors key No 1: Roster shifts
In the first meeting between the clubs, the Thunder dressed only nine players including Justin Jackson and Darius Miller who are no longer with OKC. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, and Darius Bazley were all out with the latter two back from injury for this match.
Although The Raptors retained Kyle Lowry at the trade deadline they did make moves. The main deal involved sending Norman Powell to the Jazz for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood.
At the time of the initial meeting, Trent and Hood had only been with the Raptors a few days and were still getting used to their teammates and new system. Trent has flourished under Nick Nurse already posting his career-best (31 points) and then breaking that mark five games later scoring 44 points on an insanely efficient 17 of 19 from the field.
Two additional moves were made after the deadline. Toronto signed Freddie Gillespie to a 10-day contract (they’ll repeat that process this coming week).
Khem Birch who was waived by the Orlando Magic was quickly picked up by Masai Ujiri with the blessing of head coach Nick Nurse who coached Birch on the Canadian National Team.