{"id":716135,"date":"2026-04-22T20:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:54:17","slug":"thunder-actively-looking-to-avoid-troubling-game-2-playoff-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716135\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder actively looking to avoid troubling Game 2 playoff trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

After routing the Suns in their playoff series opener <\/a>Sunday afternoon, the OKC Thunder head into Wednesday’s matchup with the aim of going up 2-0 in this best-of-seven quarterfinal series.<\/p>\n

Though the odds of them doing so may objectively be in their favor, as they are the higher seed, have homecourt advantage, and are riding into the contest with momentum on their side, an ongoing league-wide trend suggests that a win may not be a foregone conclusion for Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Following Tuesday’s slate of games, all but two road teams pulled off upset wins in Game 2, with the most recent juggernaut to fall being the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

No playoff team can afford to be overlooked, especially one like Phoenix, which won two games against Oklahoma City earlier in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Directly following Sunday’s win, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault also reminded his team of the fact that, though OKC handily took care of business in Game 1, they were well rested after nearly a week off, while the Suns came into the contest less than 48 hours after eliminating the Golden State Warriors in the Play-In Tournament finale.<\/p>\n

Heading into this second game with two full days of rest in between, expect Phoenix to come out with much fresher legs than they did to kick things off.<\/p>\n

Ajay Mitchell admits Thunder are ‘focused on us’ amid Game 2 trend<\/p>\n

During his practice media session, Ajay Mitchell told reporters that he and his teammates aren’t paying too much attention <\/a>to the ongoing Game 2 trend, instead revealing that “we’re really focused on us,” and that their main objective is to keep their homecourt advantage intact before heading on the road for Games 3 and 4.<\/p>\n

This kind of living-in-the-moment mentality has been echoed all throughout this year’s title defense tour, with Jalen Williams going on record before the start of the playoffs saying that history is hard to replicate<\/a> and that each game needs to be approached with a 0-0 mindset.<\/p>\n

To give themselves their best chance of pulling out with a win on Wednesday, Oklahoma City must look to continue dominating in two key areas of play — second-chance opportunities and forcing turnovers.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, they out-rebounded Phoenix 19 to 14 on the offensive glass and forced the Suns into a whopping 17 turnovers which directly translated to 32 points.<\/p>\n

To star Devin Booker, this is unequivocally seen a “recipe for disaster.”<\/p>\n

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