Russell Westbrook / Thabo Sefolosha / Kevin Durant / Jeff Green / Nenad Krstic
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Deron Williams / Wes Matthews / Ronnie Brewer / Carlos Boozer / Kyrylo Fesenko
Matchup
Another tough road game Utah is decimated by injuries, half their bench is out and Mehmet Okur is probably out also with an illness. They start Wes Matthews and Kyrylo Fesenko, though Paul Millsap and Andrei Kirilenko will see a lot of minutes off the bench. Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams are there too, so this is a team that will probably still get it done on the offensive end
Kevin Durant should do well against Brewer or Matthews but may have a little trouble with Kirilenko if he's guarded by him; it's rare for KD to be matched up with someone with his length. Jeff Green once again will be the focal point on defense (good or bad) against Boozer and Millsap. Nenad Krstic and the big guys get a bit of a reprieve since Utah doesn't have any real huge big guy to muscle people around.
Utah's a tough place to win but with the injuries and the matchup in general it's a winnable game if we play smart.
Some Numbers
After another debacle OKC's defensive rating has dropped to 7th, offensive rating is 7th worst. I guess that evens out, huh?
Russell Westbrook's PER dropped by almost 1.5 points (19.2 to 17.8) after the Laker game. Way too many mistakes by Russ.
The Thunder are approaching a dubious distinction, one bad night from Nenad Krstic and they'll have a starting lineup comprised of sub .450 field goal shooters. As it stands, here are the shooting percentages of the starting lineup: .421, .402, .446, .423, .470. Without researching, I'm confident this is the worst shooting starting lineup in the NBA.
A Question
Can OKC pull out another surprise road win?
