Thunder Roll Out Chaotic Small-Ball Lineup Amid Massive Win Streak
Underdog NBA reported the lineup alert for Tuesday's game.
According to Underdog NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder are rolling out a starting five on Tuesday that looks like it was drawn out of a hat by a guy who forgot to set his fantasy lineup until 6:59 p.m. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jared McCain, Mitchell, Kenrich Williams, and Isaiah Hartenstein are officially getting the nod.
When you are winning games by 30 points, you can afford to get weird with the rotation. Oklahoma City is currently riding a massive hot streak, coming off a hilarious 114-75 demolition of the Washington Wizards and a 128-97 blowout of the Memphis Grizzlies.
For anyone holding tickets on player props, this guard-heavy blender completely scrambles the usage rates. Thrusting another ball-handler into the starting unit means the offensive initiation is going to be split in ways that will give sportsbooks a headache when pricing the daily totals.
It is also a welcome sight for Jared McCain, who is finally getting a clean run of health after a brutal stretch of injuries. Between a torn UCL in his thumb and a meniscus issue over the last two years, seeing him healthy and starting alongside an MVP candidate in Gilgeous-Alexander is a massive win for a guy who has spent way too much time in the trainer's room.
Throwing Kenrich Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein into the frontcourt gives this group just enough defensive grit to survive the chaotic, positionless basketball experiment. It is the kind of lineup that only works when your team is already blowing the doors off the rest of the league.
The Thunder head to Portland to face the Portland Trail Blazers next. We will soon see if this small-ball fever dream is a one-night experiment or the new normal for a roster that clearly feels like it can do whatever it wants right now.