Or you could win some more and drop to 4th in the tank race. If I was you I wouldn't know whether to treat Nikola Mirotic like a god for turning this team around, or beg Bobby Portis to punch him again so that this tank can get back on track.
After those early season surprises, regression to the mean appears to have set in, for better or worse. The Pistons had a losing streak after being 14-6, the Magic completely fell off after their fast start, whilst the Cavaliers and Warriors sorted themselves out after slow starts.
However, we still have the Celtics minus Hayward defending top spot in the East, whilst the Pacers and Knicks look like geniuses selling fools gold to a Thunder team that hasn't performed up to par. Kanter and especially Oladipo turned out to be pretty big pieces to lose, and it's nice to see new stars like Oladipo emerge in the East to keep some level of parity intact.
But the Thunder still aren't out of the title picture just yet. They're 8-3 this month and that has gotten them back above .500. Their starting 5, even with Carmelo, is a top defensive unit on paper, and that has translated to them having the 2nd best defensive rating in the league so far. The blueprint for a contender was and still is there.
Whilst no regular season season game is truly must-win unless you're on the play-off bubble late, these next 10 games are fairly important ones for OKC, as now they need to prove to the world, and to themselves, that their early season woes are truly a thing of the past.
Last edited by Jay (OTT) at 12/21/2017 8:55:32 AM