It very easily could’ve been the other way around.
If things had worked out the way everyone thought they would back in July, it would be Chris Paul leading the Miami Heat into Chesapeake Energy Arena for Friday night’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But as it is, Paul is running point for a surprising Thunder squad that’s sitting at No. 7 in the Western Conference standings and fighting for a spot in the postseason.
One of the hottest teams in the NBA during the month of December, Oklahoma City has cooled off a little in the month of January, having dropped two of their last three.
Against the Raptors on Wednesday night, OKC fell behind by 30 before making a furious comeback that saw them draw within just a few points in the final minutes.
That’s been their M.O. to get down in the first half, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had a historic triple-double earlier this week against the Timberwolves, told ESPN that OKC needs to find ways to get off to a faster start.
“We know if there’s time on the clock, there’s nothing us as a group is not capable of. It’s been a little bit of us in the past to get down a little bit — a lot actually — to start games. We’ve just got to figure out a way to not let that happen, and put together a full four quarters.”
Miami comes into Friday second in the Eastern Conference, but the Heat have struggled on the road and are just 10-11 away from South Beach.
Friday night’s matchup is the first between the two teams this year. They split the regular-season series in 2018-19.