After a 2 year drought from the postseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder have returned and will play on Wednesday in the play-in tournament. On Sunday, the Pelicans and Timberwolves went head to head to determine who would be the 8th and 9th seed.
With the Timberwolves coming out on top, that means the New Orleans Pelicans will host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, April 12 on ESPN at 8:30 PM CT/9:30 PM ET. The winner of this game will move on to the next round of the play-in and face the loser of the Timberwolves/Lakers match-up.
The Thunder and Pelicans have already faced off against each other 4 times this season with New Orleans winning 3 of them. However, all 4 games were decided by 4 points or less. It will be fun to see how Oklahoma City approaches the New Orleans defense and if the game falls in their favor.
The OKC Thunder definitely struggled a bit on the road as they had a record of 16-25. And on the other hand, the New Orleans Pelicans were best at home with a record of 27-14. With this being said, we will see how this young Thunder team adjusts to playing in a playoff environment on the road.
With this being the first postseason appearance for pretty much everybody other than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lugentz Dort, and Dario Saric, you can tell they are ready. During the regular season, players usually don’t practice too hard because of the schedule. But now that they are playing for a chance at the playoffs, the players have turned up the intensity, as Jalen Williams and Mark Daigneault mentioned.
Nonetheless, this will be another exciting game between the two teams. If the Thunder win, they will play again on Friday against either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 8th seed.
So if the OKC Thunder go 2-0 in the play-in, they will face the Denver Nuggets in the first round as the 8th seed.