Clippers vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer

vs.

Clippers (47-27, 22-15 road) vs. Thunder (52-23, 30-9 home)

TV: TNT
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1300 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 8:30 PM CST

Team Comparisons (per NBA.com/Stats)

• Offensive Rating: Thunder – 109.8 (2nd), Clippers – 106.3 (6th)
  Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.6 (11th), Clippers – 101.1 (6th)

I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be a San Antonio fan and be low-key hyped for a regular season game, only to have the coach pull the rug out from under you and sit some of the starters. When the team announced they would be sitting Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka for rest purposes, I was a bit conflicted. I know why they are doing it. There are only about two weeks left in the regular season and the Thunder are pretty much locked into the 3 seed in the West. They literally have nothing to play for other than to maintain a good rhythm heading into the playoffs.

But against Reggie Jackson and the Detroit Pistons, this is definitely a game I wished the team would have let them play. Everyone knows the tenuous history between Reggie Jackson and the Oklahoma City Thunder. He wanted to be a starter, the team didn’t have a spot for him to be a starter, and then he pouted his way out of town when the team needed him to play his best. I wouldn’t necessarily say he divided the locker room, because the team was pretty much in lockstep on their feelings of the situation. But he did become the Thunder’s first public incidence of a locker room cancer.  So any game against Jackson always holds that special Harden-esque feel to it.

Regardless, the Thunder still had to play the game with the players they had, and they did a very good job of keeping it competitive. Jackson and Russell Westbrook battled to varying degrees of inefficiency, while Andre Drummond and Marcus Morris ate the Thunder up on the interior. It was near the end of the game when the fireworks on the court started to pop off, though. With the game securely in hand, Jackson decided to showboat and pander to the crowd like the game was Game 7 of a playoff series. With Aron Baynes shooting free throws with a little more than a second left, Jackson kept jawing at Steven Adams, Westbrook, and the Thunder bench like the Detroit victory was going to actually mean anything in the long run. In the end, though, I would not have expected anything less from Jackson. He has shown to be a passive-aggressive introvert with a chip on his shoulder. If anything, I think this galvanizes the Thunder even more for their playoff run.

Series History

This is the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the Thunder and Clippers. The Thunder lead the season series 2-1, with one of the victories being a blowout and the other being a one-point victory earlier in the season in Los Angeles. The lone Clippers’ victory came in a game where the Thunder led by as many as 14 points with 5 minutes left in the game. From that point on, the Clippers outscored them 22-3 to secure a 103-98 come from behind victory.

The Opponent

The Clippers come into this game with a 47-27 record, having won their last 4 games. They will be resting Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, and JJ Redick and will be sitting Blake Griffin who will be serving the final game of his 4 game suspension. In addition, Paul Pierce will likely be out because of a knee/ankle injury he suffered on Monday. So that basically leaves Jamal Crawford, Jeff Green, Austin Rivers, Cole Aldrich, and Wesley Johnson. And this concludes our Clippers’ section for today.

3 Big Things

Sometimes a team’s B-team will come into a game with a chip on their shoulder and will play good for the first couple minutes of a game. But eventually, the better team usually grabs a hold of the game and eventually wins. We saw that in the last meeting with the Spurs where they sat out their 5 best players and the Spurs held a 2-point lead by the end of the 1st quarter. The Thunder eventually won the game by 19. If the Thunder can avoid the slow start and have this game in hand by halftime, that would be great (Lumbergh voice).

The next win by the Thunder this season will give Donovan the record for most wins by a rookie coach who made the jump from college to the pros. Do it for Billy, guys.

I thought Huestis looked extremely effective in his first “real game-time” stint on Tuesday. He looked smooth on his 3-point attempt and made himself available for offensive opportunities. Defensively, he got eaten up by Marcus Morris who man-handled him on the interior, but I think on that end of the court, his natural position is more 3 than 4.  In the arms race to keep up with Golden State, the Thunder may have just found another weapon in their arsenal to put out there in a series against the Warriors. Maybe not this year, but definitely next season.

Thunder Killer

Jamal Crawford – On a team without its first 3 offensive options available, it’ll be the biggest green light for Crawford tonight. If he can get going, he could go off for 25+.