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The Thunder are back with a vengeance

Roar Guru
17th December, 2014
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Kevin Durant's arrival in Golden State has the Warriors looking downright scary. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Roar Guru
17th December, 2014
5

Oklahoma City Thunder experienced their worst case scenario over the summer, when 2014 MVP winner Kevin Durant had surgery on his foot after being diagnosed with a Jones fracture.

This was a blow to the team but a manageable situation as they still had All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook and shot blocker extraordinaire Serge Ibaka to keep the ship afloat.

That was until Westbrook also went down with an injury nine minutes into the second game of the season against the LA Clippers.

Very quickly the Thunder went from Western Conference favourites to lottery bound losers in the eyes of some people and not without reason. It was easy to see why some were hitting the panic button with the lack of wing depth coming back to haunt the Thunder given there was no specific timetable for Durant’s return.

Some guessed it was six to eight weeks but could be well into January depending on how the rehab went. With Anthony Morrow also on the sideline it was up to the likes of Andre Roberson, Perry Jones III, Lance Thomas and Jeremy Lamb to play big minutes and as expected it didn’t go very well.

The Thunder started off horribly with a 4-12 record before Westbrook’s comeback spectacular against the Knicks in late November. But the damage had already been done. The record really doesn’t reflect how well they played in the circumstances with four of the losses decided by five points or less.

The overall play without Durant and Westbrook was commendable with several players stepping up to the plate with big performances and you could sense the team really rallied around each other.

What showed through despite all the losing was the quality play of sixth man Reggie Jackson, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise given he has played well in place of an injured Westbrook before. During the stretch without both stars in the line-up he managed a pretty handy 20.2 points per game, 7.8 assists and 5.2 rebounds.

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When Westbrook returned the Thunder could at least be competitive again, even without Durant, for another month. But then it was announced Durant would be back against the 76ers on December 4. Suddenly their 5-13 record wasn’t looking too bad and with 64 games remaining it wouldn’t be as hard to catch the scorching Western Conference playoff contenders.

Since Durant’s return they have gone a healthy 7-0 with impressive wins over the LeBron James-led Cavs and a 24-point thrashing of the Suns. Durant had been easing his way back into the game with what looked like a 30-minute-per-night restriction in place until yesterday’s 35-minute effort against the Kings.

This was a smart move for the Thunder but is no guarantee that Durant will be injury free for the rest of the season. Yao Ming suffered the same injury throughout his career, which was the eventual cause of his retirement but Durant is a lot skinnier than Yao so the risk of a recurring problem is not as worrying.

Prior to announcing the surgery Durant had played a total of 23,807 minutes in his seven-season NBA career plus hundreds more in pre-season and international play. Add in the fact he has only missed 16 games over his NBA entire career and his workload is even more impressive. Durant stated that he wasn’t going to return until he was 100 per cent healthy so you have to trust that he knows what he is doing.

The run up to the New Year will be a good litmus test for the revived Thunder with key games against Western Conference rivals including the Warriors, New Orleans, Portland, San Antonio and Dallas. Making the playoffs was never in doubt so long as Durant and Westbrook had at least two-thirds of a season to work with and currently they are only 0.5 games behind eighth place New Orleans.

The Thunder might be too far back to get home court advantage in the playoffs given the healthy top end of the Western Conference, but I don’t think that will bother them given the level of talent on their roster.

Even with Durant’s minutes restriction they have looked dangerous, but the top teams in the West won’t roll over and die come playoffs time so there is plenty to look forward to before the end of the season. The only thing stopping the Thunder from regaining a place at the upper echelon of the NBA is a healthy Durant and Westbrook and that is the big unknown going forward.

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There are plenty of Western Conference general managers and coaches watching intently at what the Thunder are doing right now and planning accordingly. I wouldn’t want to be the one that draws the short straw in the first round of the playoffs. Expect some late season dodging if the Thunder haven’t already climbed to home court advantage.

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