Second Most Favorable – Oklahoma City Thunder
Before diving any further into this one, let me make one thing clear – I believe that the Oklahoma City Thunder are a better team than last year. A season ago, they desperately missed Andre Roberson‘s defense in the playoffs, didn’t have much reliable depth and were exposed due to the lackluster play of Carmelo Anthony.
This year, they boast an MVP candidate in Paul George who has been other-worldly alongside the ever dangerous Russell Westbrook. Not only that, but between underrated man in the middle Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Jerami Grant and Terrance Ferguson, who’s largely filled the void left by Roberson, the Thunder have been a powerful team. Even reserves such as Alex Abrines and Abdel Nader continue to have their moments and it will be interesting to see what kind of playoff impact Markieff Morris has.
Despite some inconsistencies, such as a disappointing loss to the LA Clippers a night ago, at times the Thunder have looked dominant, and some would argue at their ceiling, they’re the second best team in the West. So with so much going for them, why do I have them on the favorable side of the fence? Well, let me tell you it wasn’t an easy decision to make. In fact, I think there’s definitely a case to be made for swapping OKC and Portland in these rankings.
Nevertheless, the Jazz have a few things going in this matchup. First of all, from a pure mentality standpoint, they knocked out the Thunder in the first round last year, so they’ll know they’re capable of doing it again. Sure, the regular season results aren’t that promising with OKC currently up 3-0, but two of those were second nights of back-to-backs for the Jazz and the third was a narrow double overtime loss in which the Jazz shot themselves in the foot repeatedly.
Not to mention, OKC dominated the regular season series a year ago as well, but we all saw that turned out. When it comes to postseason play, I believe Quin Snyder has an edge over Billy Donovan, Russell Westbrook is too apt to fall into poor habits and bone-headed decisions, and George has yet to prove he can come up big in the highest pressure moments despite his big year thus far. Last year’s Game 6 was perfect evidence of that as Joe Ingles got in PG’s head throughout the series.
In other words, I like the way the Jazz would be able to match up against OKC in the playoffs. Utah’s offensive system proved hard for them to defend last year, and the Jazz defense that forced Westbrook and others into difficult mid-range shots proved extremely effective. So long as the Jazz are healthy, they’d have a good shot. That still doesn’t make this an easy series by any means and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Thunder earn revenge this time around. Nevertheless, it would still be better than any of the three aforementioned opponents.
How would they get here:
Yet again, this is a pretty likely 3-6 or 4-5 matchup depending on how teams close out the year. However, the Thunder also have a shot, albeit an unlikely one, of climbing to second. As such, the 2-7 matchup is a possibility as well if Utah can’t close out strong.