The Thunder are only 4 games out of the 8th spot. If they win 70% of their remaining games, that's 50 wins. And I bet they'll do even better than that.
WHAT?!?!?! There's no reason to bring Durant back until Westbrook shows he can't carry the team!!! Damn OKC is making a big mistake on this one,
Show me where the Thunder have ever played .700 for the entire season with such a stacked west? How you figure this is possible?
Umm... They played .720 ball last season (59-23), and that was with Westbrook missing 36 games. There is no reason to think they can't play .700 ball with both Durant and Westbrook healthy. Hell, Durant alone makes them a .700 team (at least he did last season in a West that was pretty damn stacked). BNM
The West was stacked last season, too. It took 49 wins last year to make the playoffs. It's not like playing .720 ball for 82 games with Westbrook missing almost half the season was a cakewalk last year. But the Thunder did it and they won't even need to play .720 for an entire season to make the playoffs. If they play .700 for the next 65 games, they should be in with room to spare. In fact, I don't think they even need to win 50 games to make it this year. I think 46 wins makes the playoffs this year in the West. Why, because teams that were really bad last year have gotten much better this year (SAC, NOP, etc.). There will be fewer easy wins this year, which means all Western Conference teams beating up on each other. To get to 50 wins, they need to play .692 ball for the next 65 games. To get to 46 wins, they only need to play .631 ball the rest of the way - and remember, they played .694 ball last season in the 36 games Westbrook missed. A healthy Durant alone is capable to carrying them to the playoffs. BNM
With Durant, anything is possible I guess. That's why I was hoping he would be out for another 2 weeks! I don't fear a westbrick lead team. I fear a Durant lead team
Glad to see him back. He is a great player and fun to watch. If they end up ahead of the Blazers, good on them, they deserve it. Hopefully, they do not.
Key matrix "stacked west". The top 9 teams last season were damn good, but the mediocre teams are much better now. Wins aren't as easy
8th place Suns are only on pace to win 46 games. 42-25 is doable for Thunder. I hope not, though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Let's hope they play good enough to be 8th best. Since we will be 2nd or 3rd, we won't see them until the WCF. And if we do, then we have HCA!
Phoenix and OKC play each other in less than two weeks. OKC is 5 games back and they each play 5 games before then. Based on their schedules I would not be surprised if OKC was only 3 games back by the 14th. I would also not be surprised if they caught Phoenix by Mid January. Let alone Mid April. Something else would have to happen for OKC not to make the playoffs. (Some other team would have to get hot like Sac or N.O) 5 games back at the beginning of December is nothing.
