{"id":125107,"date":"2025-02-22T17:04:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=125107"},"modified":"2025-02-22T17:04:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:04:41","slug":"thunder-clutch-time-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/22\/thunder-clutch-time-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The Thunder’s Lack of Clutch Games a Cause For Concern?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder had 38 games in the clutch and posted a record of 24-14,<\/a> this was tied for the third most clutch-time wins. Furthermore, those clutch games helped the Thunder win two close games against the New Orleans Pelicans and one against the Dallas Mavericks last year in the playoffs. However, this year has been completely different as they have played in just 16<\/a> clutch games this year, which is the least amount in the entire NBA.<\/p>\n

They have a 9-7<\/a> record in those clutch games with a winning percentage of 56.3%, which ranks 9th. With only 27 more games left for the Thunder, there aren’t many opportunities left to get the team battle-tested in the clutch. Let’s dive into whether the lack of clutch games for the Thunder is a cause of concern or not.<\/p>\n

Is the Thunder’s Lack of Clutch Games a Cause For Concern?<\/h2>\n

Why it is Concerning for The Thunder<\/h3>\n

This stat isn’t too concerning in the regular season, but it is for the playoffs. Usually, in the playoffs, every game is close, as last year, the Thunder had six of their 10 games decided by single digits. In addition, one of the four that were decided by more than ten points was a 12-point game. This means that seven of their ten games were within striking distance till the very end of the game. In the playoffs, teams that perform better in the clutch usually have the advantage in the series. The more practice you can build up in the regular season will help you for those situations when they matter the most.<\/p>\n

Since the Thunder have only played in 16 clutch games, a good number to have is in the high 30 range; this is some cause for concern. How will this team handle the pressure of clutch games, especially with how young they are? Are they battle-tested enough and can navigate close games in the playoffs? These are all questions that the Thunder don’t have a large sample size to get a good answer on. They haven’t played in a lot of these games is that they are blowing teams out left and right, as they have a 13.2<\/a> net rating, which is the second-best<\/a> all-time. Even though they have been so dominant all year, the lack of experience in clutch games could hurt them in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Thunder Have Two Great Go-To Scorers<\/h3>\n

However, this is something that the Thunder and their fans shouldn’t be too concerned with for two specific reasons. The first one is that they have two great options to go to in the clutch, with one of them being an elite option. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, the front-runner for MVP<\/a>, is one of the best iso scorers in the NBA. He ranks second<\/a> in iso scoring with 7.3 points. He is one of the best players to turn to for an NBA team when you need someone in the playoffs to get you a bucket.<\/p>\n

Another option they have is Jalen Williams<\/a>, who they can also turn to in the clutch. He isn’t as good of an option as Shai is but has shown flashes of being able to handle late-game situations well. Chet Holmgren<\/a> is also an option, but most likely won’t be someone they turn to for iso scoring in the playoffs when they need a bucket. Williams struggled last year in the playoffs on offense, but the Thunder are hopeful he can bounce back with a second go-around. The Thunder will be counting on the two-man game of Shai and J-Dub to score points in the clutch when they need to.<\/p>\n

They Can Lean on Their Defense<\/h3>\n

Another reason is the Thunder can rely on their defense. In the playoffs, you need players who can score and get you timely buckets as well as get stops. The Thunder have the league’s best defense<\/a> in the NBA and multiple great defensive players. With Victor Wembanyama<\/a> ruled out<\/a> for the rest of the year the Defensive Player of The Year award is up for grabs. The Thunder have three guys in the top six with Lu Dort<\/a> having the best chance to win DPOY<\/a>. However, he is unlikely to win it but should make the final ballot. This goes to show how many great defenders this team has and they can rely on their defense to get stops in the clutch.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

While it is a little concerning that the Thunder haven\u2019t played in a lot of clutch games this year, it is something they can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t control. The Thunder aren\u2019t going to purposely try to keep a game close so they can get more experience in these types of situations. However, the Thunder should feel comfortable when these situations come up either now or in the playoffs that they have the personnel to get iso buckets and get stops.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: <\/span>\u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder had 38 games in the clutch and posted a record of 24-14, this was tied for the third most clutch-time wins. Furthermore, those clutch games helped the Thunder win two close games against the New Orleans Pelicans and one against the Dallas Mavericks last year in the playoffs. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":125166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,22],"tags":[4292,4609,1489],"class_list":["post-125107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-jalen-williams","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125167,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125107\/revisions\/125167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}