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The Thunder are in Miami tonight to play the first of their last two games of the season. The challenge is simple: win, and they’re in. Lose tonight and OKC still has one last chance, and that game is against the lottery-bound Grizzlies, but bad things happen when you tempt fate like that. Ideally OKC sees tonight’s game as a must-win.
To put it plainly (if obtusely), the Thunder have a bad habit of doing the thing, but then doing the other thing, a thing we’ve seen many times this season. So there are no guarantees that we’ll once again get to enjoy Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, and the remaining cast play good defense without switching every dang time.