Roll back the calendar a couple months, and things weren’t going so well in Oklahoma City. The Thunder had to open their season without former MVP Russell Westbrook, who was in the final stages of his knee rehabilitation following a late-summer arthroscopic procedure. And even after getting him back a few games in, the club […]
Another NBA season gets underway tonight, and aside from the obvious question — can the Warriors piece together three consecutive championships? — there are several things worth watching. We took a crack at analyzing a handful of them, and how we think they might play out, just ahead of the games on opening night. Will […]
Just about any way you slice it, the 2017-18 campaign was a trying one for Carmelo Anthony. Although Melo’s sole season with the Oklahoma City Thunder saw him reach the postseason for the first time in five years, he never achieved the same sort of individual success that teammates Russell Westbrook and Paul George did, […]
Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Thursday’s show (April 26, 2018), Neil and Kyle talk about two Western Conference series: Oklahoma City vs. Utah and Golden State vs. New Orleans. Russell Westbrook helped the Thunder force Game 6, but can his team really win two more consecutive games against the Jazz? And can […]
The Western Conference playoff matchup between the fourth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and fifth-seeded Utah Jazz is the embodiment of a Super Mario Bros. mystery block: No one really knows what to expect. And either of these hard-nosed defensive clubs could put a scare into the dominant Houston Rockets, who figure to be waiting for the […]