Raptors vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer
vs.
Raptors (10-14, 6-6 road) vs. Thunder (22-4, 13-0 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1430 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 6:00 CT
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 108.5 (6th), Raptors – 104.7 (18th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 100.7 (4th), Raptors – 104.6 (12th)
Pace: Thunder – 96.9 (4th), Raptors – 92.6 (22nd)
Coming off a big win on the road against the Spurs less than 24 hours ago, this feels like a bit of a trappy type game for the Thunder. The Raptors aren’t good, but any team can get you when you’re not paying attention. The Thunder have done a pretty good job this season of handling teams they should, but they’ve come close to slipping up before (see: the Magic game). If they’re feeling too good about that Spurs win, this could be that dumb loss that you know is going to happen eventually.
Toronto coming in: Beat the Mavs in overtime on Friday
Three Big Things
1. Frontline. The Raptors have a long, athletic frontcourt with Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson. So what I’m saying here is, root for Kendrick Perkins’ foul trouble. This is one of those games where OKC needs to play small with Ibaka at the 5, or at least with Collison and Ibaka as the bigs. The Raptors use their two interior players a lot in pick-and-rolls and look for them to try and bust OKC in transition a little too.
2. Long 2s. DeMar DeRozan can be an explosive scorer, but he loves low percentage shots. Go ahead and let him fire away.
3. Don’t suck. This is one of those “Don’t suck games” which basically means as long as the Thunder don’t play completely horrible, they should be alright.
Tip at 6:00 CT. Go Focus.
