Although the OKC Thunder are in tank mode it’s hard to watch games like the one fans experienced on Saturday night. Losing 152-95 to the Pacers and flirting with giving up the worst beat down in NBA history doesn’t feel very good.
That the former captain is in town tonight bringing this Phoenix Suns and their 45 win record only serves to add salt to the wound.
As fans of the Thunder, it’s important to keep things in perspective with a long-term view of the future.
OKC Thunder versus Phoenix Suns – 3 keys:
While the month of April is one the Thunder would like to forget with a single victory (1-15) the Suns had a great month posting a 12-4 record and boast a current three-game win streak.
Phoenix enters on a massive high having won a vital game on Friday versus the Jazz resulting in them sweeping Utah this season. For a brief moment they sat atop the Western Conference ladder and association but a win by Utah versus the Raptors allowed Utah to reclaim the top spot.
A win tonight will give them back that top spot and more importantly if the teams finish the season tied the Suns will own the top seed given the tiebreaker.
OKC Thunder key No. 1: Teams will play to their season objectives
There are still those who aren’t buying the Suns have the moxie to go deep in the postseason but if they claim the top seed they’ll have a great opportunity to go deep.
Granted, this season is extremely odd given the pandemic and injuries. The Lakers for example have dropped to the sixth seed while superstars LeBron James missed 20 games and Anthony Davis missed 30.
Each of the top four seeds (Jazz, Suns, Nuggets, Clippers) is in play to nab that top seed although Phoenix and Utah are the most likely to grab it given how many games remain. The next tier of the Mavericks, Lakers, and Blazers are separate by one game.
It makes for a fascinating situation as typically at this time of year the top teams would navigate to align with a specific matchup. For example, if the Lakers were the top seed many teams would position themselves to try to avoid them until the Conference Finals. Since they could finish fifth, sixth, or seventh it’s impossible to plan ahead.
For Phoenix that means the best option is simply to win and try to earn the top seed in order to get the club who’ll have to play at least two games prior to their series beginning.
Conversely, the OKC Thunder want to keep losing — albeit it’s a certainty Mark Daigneault won’t want a repeat performance of what happened versus the Pacers. Tanking is tough and the coach needs to temper losing with how the club loses. And doing it the way OKC did to the Pacers isn’t a habit he wants his team replicating or being okay with!