-
Oklahoma City Thunder -
Graham Dudley
Happy Monday, and welcome back to The Graham Jam newsletter!
As you'll recall, Oklahoma City was down in the dumps last week after a historic loss to Memphis. But the Thunder responded in a big way, rattling off two straight wins against Detroit and Toronto to get their confidence back.
After consecutive home losses to the Lakers and Mavericks, though, Oklahoma City sits at 8-18 and will take a couple of days off before returning to the Paycom Center for an eminently winnable matchup with New Orleans.
In this week's Graham Jam, we'll look back and look ahead at the Thunder schedule; examine the team's penchant for exciting comeback wins; and play another round of Tank Time.
Let's get to it!
Last week
12/6: Thunder 114, Detroit 103, AWAY
12/8: Thunder 110, Toronto 109, AWAY
12/10: Los Angeles Lakers 116, Thunder 95, HOME
12/12: Dallas 103, Thunder 84, HOME
Comeback kids
It's true, the Oklahoma City Thunder have not won a ton of ballgames this season. Only eight, in fact, of 26 played. But as regular watchers might have noticed, OKC has a tendency to make those wins as exciting as possible.
I mean, take Wednesday's comeback over Toronto. Mike Muscala drains a game-winning 3 with seconds remaining, only to see the Raptors celebrate as they believed Justin Champagnie's tip-in rebound had beat the clock and won the game. It didn't count; Oklahoma City held on and won by a point, a game in which it had trailed by as much as 13 and later led by as much as 14.
Double-digit comebacks are nothing unusual in the NBA. With today's shooting, momentum swings quickly.
But it is unusual for a team to mount double-digit comebacks for every single win. There are plenty of games, like in Dallas' win Sunday, when a team dominates pretty much wire-to-wire. Not OKC; most of the time, it keeps things interesting for the full 48.
Let's take a look at OKC's eight wins and its largest deficit in each:
- 10/27 vs. Los Angeles Lakers: 26
- 11/4 @ Los Angeles Lakers: 19
- 11/7 vs. San Antonio: 16
- 11/10 @ New Orleans: 8
- 11/12 vs. Sacramento: 18
- 11/17 vs. Houston: 0 (Rockets never led, but twice tied)
- 12/6 @ Detroit: 18
- 11/8 @ Toronto: 13
There you have it: Only once did Oklahoma City lead a team nearly wire-to-wire, and only one other time was its comeback under 10 points.
The Thunder have come back five times from deficits of more than 15 points, accounting for a majority of their wins this year. I'm sure the Thunder players would prefer some easier victories, but the team's fight — with the notable exception of the Memphis blowout — cannot be questioned this year.
Tank Time
It's time for our weekly game of Tank Time, where we push a button on Tankathon.com and dream of draft picks to come!
After a pair of victories this past week, Oklahoma City currently has the league's fifth-worst record and a 10.5% shot at the No. 1 overall pick, should the season end today. You'll recall that in our first two simulations, the Thunder jumped up a bit and nabbed the No. 2 pick. So let's play:
1. Orlando (+1 from current standings)
2. Sacramento (+5)
3. New Orleans
4. Boston (+9)
5. Detroit (-4)
6. Houston (-2)
7. Oklahoma City (-2)
8. San Antonio (-2)
9. Minnesota (-1)
10. Portland (-1)
11. Indiana (-1)
12. New York (-1)
13. Toronto (-1)
14. Atlanta
Ouch. We've seen before that Oklahoma City could easily end up picking at the top of this draft, but it's equally possible that it will fall even lower than its record might indicate. It was disappointing to fall outside the top five last season, though Josh Giddey has proven to be a hidden gem. But two years in a row? That would be a blow to this franchise and its rebuild.
Fortunately, Sam Presti has assets that other teams would be interested in if he wants to move up a spot or two, should OKC's lottery luck turn out this way.
That's all for me this week, Thunder fans. Let's end by looking ahead to a fairly light week of Thunder basketball. And as always, Thunder Up!
This week
12/15: Thunder vs. New Orleans, 7 p.m., Bally Sports Oklahoma
12/18: Thunder vs. Los Angeles Clippers, 7 p.m., BSOK