LA Clippers Playoff Matchups: Oklahoma City Thunder

LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 19: Lou Williams #23 of the LA Clippers looks on against the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 19, 2018 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty Images)

With playoff seeds in the air, we’re looking at the potential matchups for the LA Clippers. In this piece, we think about a series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Currently sitting at 37-29 with 16 games remaining on the schedule, the LA Clippers playoff seeding is still undetermined. With that in mind, we here at Clipperholics are taking a look at all of the team’s potential first round matchups. We already covered the Portland Trail Blazers in a piece earlier this week. Today, we will analyze how a series against the Oklahoma City Thunder would go.

Regular Season

The teams have met three times already this season, with their fourth and final game coming this Friday. The Thunder lead the series 2-1, with the Clippers lone win coming on October 19th in a game that Russell Westbrook sat out.

The three games that the two teams played in happened before the trade deadline, so Friday will be the first opportunity to see how the two re-vamped squads look against each other. While the Clippers made a big trade at the deadline, the Thunder mostly stood pat. Their only move was to sign Markieff Morris off of waivers.

Paul George, who is having a career-best year putting him into MVP consideration, has been right in line with his season averages when playing against LA. In the three games, he averaged just over 28.3 points per game. Meanwhile, Russell Westbrook scored 32 points in the October 30th victory over the Clippers, but only 13 in the December 15th win.

For the Clippers, Lou Williams scored 17 points in his two appearances versus the Thunder. Rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has struggled versus OKC, with his highest scoring output being only 5 points. Montrezl Harrell has been inconsistent as well, scoring 21, 10 and 3 in the three matchups.

In fact, Danilo Gallinari has been the lone bright spot versus the Thunder. He scored 26, 27 and 28 points in the three games. This may change though, with Paul George possibly becoming the prime defender on him now that Tobias Harris is no longer with the team. More on that later.