The OKC Thunder are a real handful for opposing teams to gameplan for. With established, in-their-prime All-Stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren leading the charge, it goes without saying that strategically coming up with ways to slow them down is an incredibly difficult task.
Now, with the playoffs right around the corner, it seems Oklahoma City is actively reminding their adversaries that they have far more than just three players to worry about, as second-unit spark plug Isaiah Joe finds himself heating up at the most opportune time.
Wednesday's bout against the Clippers was merely the latest example of his scorched-earth potential.
Iaiah Joe has been balling out off the pine for Thunder
Though he may not have the allure that other role players like Ajay Mitchell, Lu Dort, and Cason Wallace seem to, I-Joe is, without question, one of the Thunder's biggest difference-makers.
In 23 minutes of action while coming off the bench against the Clippers, Joe wrapped up the second night of OKC's Los Angeles-based back-to-back with 21 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the floor and 4-for-7 shooting from distance.
With this performance, he now ranks in with the third-most games in Thunder history with 20 or more points scored while sporting a true shooting percentage of 90.0, behind only Brent Barry and Kevin Durant.
Frankly, 2025-26 has been an absolutely stupendous campaign for the sixth-year wing from a production standpoint, as he's posting career-high averages of 11.1 points on 42.3 percent shooting from the floor.
However, with the start of the playoffs just under two weeks away, Joe is seemingly just now reaching new heights in his game, as he's been posting a ridiculous 17.0 points on 68.8 percent shooting from the floor and 64.3 percent shooting from deep since the start of April.
It's no surprise that, throughout this span, the Thunder are undefeated and are besting their opponents by an obscene average point differential of plus-33. Considering they're 32-4 this year when I-Joe drops in double-digit scoring efforts, his recent outburst correlating with a perfect record is far from shocking.
After securing the best record in the entire league for a third consecutive season, Oklahoma City now finds itself heading into the playoffs with homecourt advantage fully on their side.
Such a luxury is bound to come in handy as they look to claim their second-straight NBA Championship, though, of course, accomplishing such a feat will require all the help they can get.
Joe coming alive during these final stages of the regular season and storming into the playoffs with momentum on his side should prove to be yet another boon for the Thunder.