After a long week, the Thunder finally knows who they will be playing in round one, and it’s the Grizzlies. The Thunder and Grizzlies have had some great playoff battles, and this one should be no different. It wasn’t long ago when the Grizzlies were praised as the next great young team, like the Thunder have been for the last two years. However, with unfortunate injuries and off-the-court issues, the Grizzlies haven’t been the same. With them being at full strength and relatively healthy this season, they are back in the playoffs against the best team in the West. The Thunder were able to go 4-0 against Memphis in the regular season, but the playoffs are a different animal. Let’s dive into the Thunder’s advantages and disadvantages against Memphis in Round One.<\/p>\n
Coming into this series against Memphis, the Thunder have a ton of advantages to ride in this series. The first one is the home-court advantage. Usually, having homecourt isn’t too big of an advantage for an NBA team; however, the Thunder have a college-esque atmosphere, which makes it more of an advantage.<\/p>\n
The next one is their defense, as they have the number one defense<\/a> in the NBA and can utilize it to exploit the Grizzlies’ major weakness. The Thunder forces the most turnovers in the NBA at 17.0<\/a> per game, while the Grizzlies turnover the ball 15.6<\/a> times per game, which is the third worst. If the Thunder can cause havoc on the defensive side and force the Grizzlies into a bunch of turnovers, this will be a long series for the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n The Thunder have the best player in the series with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, the MVP front-runner<\/a> this year. Typically, the team that has the best player in the series wins the series. OKC’s depth will be a huge problem for Memphis. The Grizzlies can match the Thunder’s starting five, but they get weaker when they go to their bench, as the Thunder can get stronger in certain aspects with their bench. Their bench should be able to overwhelm the Grizzlies throughout the series. Finally, the Thunder’s strength on defense is the perimeter, and the Grizzlies’ strength on offense is their perimeter attacks. If the Thunder can win that battle, they should win this series.<\/p>\n While we just listed a bunch of advantages for the Thunder, and they also went 4-0 against the Grizzlies in the regular season, there are some disadvantages for the Thunder in this series. The first one is experience in the playoffs. The Grizzlies have more playoff experience than the Thunder, which could come up in close games to benefit Memphis.<\/p>\n The other big disadvantage for the Thunder is the size of Memphis and its rebounding ability. While the Thunder are better in this department compared to a year ago, there are still struggles in that area. The Grizzlies are third<\/a> in offensive rebound percentage, while the Thunder are 19th<\/a> in defensive rebound percentage. Memphis can overwhelm the Thunder with their size on offense and defense by making them a jump-shooting team.<\/p>\n After clinching a playoff spot, OKC got some needed rest after an injury-plagued season. However, most of their key guys haven’t played since April 8th against the Lakers. This means they will have been resting for 11 days, which would be the longest break they have had this season. While the Grizzlies played two games in the Play-In Tournament, and are coming into these playoffs fresh and ready to ride the momentum they have built up. The good news is that the Thunder should have a better handle on this gap compared to a year ago, and it shouldn’t hurt them too much like it did last year. However, they could be a little rusty<\/a> out of the gate, which could help Memphis to strike first.<\/p>\nThe Thunder’s Disadvantage<\/h3>\n
Will The Thunder’s Potential Rust Hurt Them?<\/h3>\n
The Last Word<\/h3>\n