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Thunder Round Wonder

 


Rolling Thunder: 3/05/2017

 

12 months ago the Thunder had a dream run into the playoffs winning 16 straight to make the playoffs for the first time in GM Nenjabin’s tenure. They proceeded to forge through the first Round and were looking dangerous, when their starting big man Jonas Valanciunas went down with injury. Their frontcourt was thin last year. It consisted of Jonas and Draymond Green, but the reserves were Boban Marjanovic, a rookie Nikola Jokic and the seldom used Walter Tavares. Jonas going down when coming up against the formidable defending champs spelled the end of the Thunder’s dream run at the hands of a 4-0 white wash of a series in which Boban simply did not cut it and the Thunder got beat up.

 

Fast forward nearly 12 months and GM Nenjabin wasn’t having a repeat. Their frontline now consists Nikola Jokic having broken out, alongside Draymond Green, with Jonas still around off the bench, paired up with starting quality big man Nikola Mirotic, and then JaVale McGee and solid rookie Juan Hernangomez in the wings for good measure. The only acquisition goal for the season was, bring in another big man, and they did in Mirotic. They were set.

One series earlier than last year, they met the now 2x defending Champs, the Los Angeles Lakers, the ender of the fairytale but there was no repeat of the 4-0 white wash. In fact, the opposite. The Thunder’s size and frontline had improved while the Lakers frontline had lost its beat up quality of Tyson Chandler and Mason Plumlee. DeMarre Carroll was left playing PF in 3 of the 4 games, Spencer Hawes was barely used and the Thunder’s size pummelled the boards and dictated the series.

 

The result?
- A Plus 88 point differential over 4 games with the closest deficit being 16 points.
- A Plus 58 rebound differential over 4 games with the closest deficit being 10 rebounds.
The Thunder move on.

 

The Lakers had a solid year despite the changes to the team and actually had a 3-1 record against the Thunder over the year. GM Greenmig was been a wiz of a GM for a long time, and his titles are etched into the history of the league. This series, they simply got out done by a young team on a mission who happened to have a bounty of talent in the areas the Lakers were lacking most. Congratulations LA on being the pillar of the league for a couple of years and for a good year despite the disappointing end. The Thunder have been there, and we know the Lakers will bounce back.

 

So what now for the Thunder? They get some R&R while the other series play out but it’s looking like they will be meeting the Kings who are handling the Warriors. The season match-up between those 2 was a close one, owned by the Kings which gave them the home court and tie breaker come the end of the season. But we will wait for the final result before delving too much into this.

 

Congratulations to the Thunder, Round 2 of the playoffs is awaiting!

- OKC News

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