Entering week three of the 2021-22 NBA season the OKC Thunder have a single win in six contests. The tanking campaign is right on track to finish with a bottom three seed.
Saturday they lost for the second time this season to the Golden State Warriors and they’ll continue the mini three-game road trip in California facing the two LA clubs.
Although the mandate is to stockpile losses this first match of the week versus the Clippers shouldn’t be approached like the Thunder will most teams.
There’s a simple reason why – – OKC owns the Clippers’ draft pick this season. More importantly, unlike many of the accumulated draft picks Sam Presti obtained in deals this pick is unprotected. While the Clippers aren’t likely to keep losing at their present rate it behooves OKC for the Clippers to finish as low as possible in the standings to improve the draft position for the Thunder.
For that reason alone, the Thunder should approach all three matches versus the Clippers with the objective of winning.
OKC Thunder vs LA Clippers – the exception to the tank rule
Kawhi Leonard’s partially torn ACL dramatically impacts the LA Clippers’ path this season. While the loss of a superstar of his ilk is devastating the Clippers still have a deep team. Moreover, Paul George has proven capable of being the primary star on a team both in Indiana and with the Thunder when Russell Westbrook was hurt.
Analysts felt the Clippers could still vie for a home seed albeit most don’t expect they would challenge for the title without Leonard but no one foresaw their poor 1-4 start to this season.
Lawrence Frank made some major roster tweaks in the offseason equating to Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Patrick Patterson exiting while adding Isaiah Hartenstein, Eric Bledsoe, and Justise Winslow.
Through five games the Clippers have struggled and dealt with copious injuries and arrive at this match with the same number of wins as the Thunder.
On the weekend LA played the Blazers who routed them 92-111 despite a 42 point effort by Paul George. As for the Thunder, they lost again to the Warriors also via a rout (82-103) with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15), Luguentz Dort (14), and Josh Giddey the only double-figure scorers.