The Oklahoma City Thunder arrived in Orlando on Wednesday evening as the NBA season is just a few weeks away from restarting after what will be a 4-month layoff. Before the Thunder can start playing games again, though, there are a few things that must take place first.
For the first time since the postponement of the season back in March, the Thunder will hold team practice on Friday, marking the beginning of a mini camp to get everyone back on the same page. These initial practices will be coupled with some scrimmages against the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Portland Trail Blazers. These scrimmage matchups were decided based upon the odds of the teams meeting in the first or even second round of the playoffs.
After three weeks of practice and three scrimmages, the NBA season will resume on Thursday, July 30th, but OKC does not play until Saturday, August 1st, when they will take on the Utah Jazz.
Wrapping up the season looks much different this year, and holding the NBA Playoffs at the end of the summer instead of the beginning is a big change, but the goal remains the same: come home with the gold ball. At the beginning of the season, basically no one gave OKC a chance at even making the playoffs, but if they can carry the same momentum into the restart that they had back in March, who is to say whether or not the Thunder could find themselves playing for an NBA Finals Championship.
