After being the first team in their respective semifinal series to claim two consecutive victories, following Tuesday night's exhilarating exhibition, the OKC Thunder are now one win away from advancing to their first Western Conference Finals since 2016.
Thursday's Game 6 will provide the club with an opportunity to accomplish such a coveted feat, though, unfortunately for them, it will be a contest held out in Denver, where Oklahoma City has fared rather poorly, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Thunder must address offensive woes on the road to win Game 6
While their defensive efforts have remained as lethal as ever during their round-two road tilts, boasting a league-best 97.6 rating, their production on the more glamorous side of the ball has been truly abysmal, as they currently have the worst offensive rating at 97.0 as a collective.
Despite ranking number one in average field goal attempts during away games (95.5), they register in with harrowing shooting splits of 37.2 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from distance, both the worst among second round participants, while dropping in the second-lowest point-per-game averages of 98.0, trailing only the hobbled Golden State Warriors (96.0).
Compared to their regular season averages of 118.4 points (No. 6) on 47.7 percent shooting from the floor (No. 9) and 36.5 percent shooting from distance (No. 11), these are quite troubling drop-offs.
Now, of course, despite their struggles, the Thunder still managed to split their two-game stint at Ball Arena with a 1-1 record.
Still, this all defense, no offense approach should not be relied upon as a reliable recipe for success, even with the fact that they are riding high on a two-game win streak.
What's encouraging to note is that, of Oklahoma City's 191 total shots taken while playing the Nuggets out in Denver this series, 50.3 percent have either come off open (closest defender is four to six feet away) or wide open (closest defender is over six feet away) looks.
Sadly, they have only managed to cash in on such attempts at a 32.3 percent clip.
When considering this series has been back-and-forth and tightly contested throughout, had even half of the 31 open-to-wide open shots they've missed been converted, there's a chance this series may not even be heading into a Game 6.
Nevertheless, here they are, with a chance to move beyond round two for the first time in nearly a decade, and the best way for them to do this is by finding a way to make the most of their offensive looks which, based on the numbers, have actually been pretty good through this point.