| Nenad Krstic: OKC has nothing to lose |
With the Thunder facing the possibility of finishing as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, a disappointment considering they were fifth a couple of weeks ago, center Nenad Krstic offered a reason for optimism after Sunday night’s loss to Portland.
Krstic conceded many of his teammates lack playoff-race experience but that might not be a bad thing.
"These games will affect which playoff spot we will get, but a lot of guys not having experience could be advantage,” Krstic said. "We don’t have a lot of pressure. We can just go out and play.”
The Thunder opens a three-game road trip tonight at Philadelphia, a trip that continues Wednesday night in Boston and concludes Saturday night in Dallas.
To avoid the No. 8 seed and a first-round matchup with the Lakers, the Thunder must post some road wins.
One reason OKC is on the brink of clinching a playoff berth is the Thunder has posted road wins at Utah, San Antonio, Phoenix, Atlanta, Portland, Miami and New Orleans.
Owning the league’s sixth-best road record, Oklahoma City has six road games left, including four games against teams also battling for playoff positioning — Boston, Dallas, Utah and Portland.
"All season we’ve shown we can play pretty good on the road,” Krstic said. "We’ll just play hard these last 10 games and see what happens.”
With 10 games left in the regular season, every game affecting playoff seeding, Krstic said the Thunder has nothing to lose since no one projected Oklahoma City to make the playoffs in October when the season tipped off.
Veteran Nick Collison agrees.
"I don’t know why we’re the way we are, but I don’t think anybody feels any pressure,” Collison said. "Everybody has enjoyed this season. Everybody has had a lot of fun playing.”
Losing pivotal head-to-head games to San Antonio and Portland on a recent four-game homestand, Oklahoma City is in a virtual three-way tie for the Nos. 6, 7 and 8 seeds with San Antonio and Portland.
To avoid the No. 8 seed, the Thunder probably needs to post around 50 wins, including a winner-take-all tiebreaker showdown against Portland April 12 in the next-to-last regular season game in the Rose Garden.
"What I’ve liked about this team is we play hard and come out and compete every night,” Collison said. "It’s a cliché, but it’s true. All you can do is come and play the best you can do and see what happens.”
The Thunder should officially clinch a playoff berth this week, possibly Sunday night when it returns home to play Minnesota in the Ford Center.
Regardless of how the final two weeks play out, with four more wins Oklahoma City will become just the 10th team in NBA history to improve by 25 wins.
All-Star Kevin Durant maintains he never looks at the standings. But surely he will celebrate when the Thunder officially clinches a playoff berth.
"That will be a good milestone for us,” Durant said. "But if we get there we’ve still got to be ready to play. We still have 10 games left. We just have to keep working and pushing on.”
Used courtesy of: NEWSOK.COM |
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