NBA Schedule Breakdown: Oklahoma City Thunder
The NBA released its schedule last evening so it’s time we take a look and see how it breaks down for the top teams in the league. Today, we will take a closer look at the Oklahoma City Thunder so fans looking to grab OKC Thunder tickets this year better pay attention. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have fallen short just the past few years in the NBA playoffs, falling to the San Antonio Spurs last year in the Western Conference Finals in Game 6. The previous year, Westbrook was injured during the final months of the season and the Thunder failed to make it out of the Western Conference semifinals, losing to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The year before, the Thunder were able to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. LeBron James was simply too much in the series, however, and the Thunder fell to the Heat in five games.
With LeBron now in Cleveland, the Eastern Conference is up for grabs, but the Western Conference remains just as powerful as previous years. The reigning champions, the San Antonio Spurs, are surely the team to beat, but pressure will be applied to them from not only the Thunder, but the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, and Dallas Mavericks.
The Thunder will start out on the road this season with games at the Portland Trail Blazers and at the Los Angeles Clippers on October 29th and 30th, respectively, before their home opener against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, November 1st. Some marquee matchups over the course of the season for the Thunder include a Christmas day road game against the San Antonio Spurs, a visit from LeBron James on December 11th and visits from former-Thunder stalwart James Harden and the Houston Rockets on November 16th and April 5th.
The Thunder will have one road stretch towards the end of January with five games in a row on the East Coast and seven of eight games in total away from home. Their longest successive stint at the Chesapeake Energy Arena will be four games, occurring twice during the season – once at the end of November and again at the beginning of March.
