The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies are playing on the NBA playoffs schedule on Saturday night and the Game 7 matchup will decide the series at Chesapeake Energy Arena and whoever wins at 4-3 will advance to the second round and the game starts at 8 pm ET and is on TV and streaming online and Zach Randolph will be out of the matchup after getting suspended and that gives Kevin Durant and company the advantage.
Randolph was suspended for throwing a punch in the last game and he was leading the team in scoring and rebounding and now he is out and that could turn the tide for the Thunder, especially with Mike Conley not at full strength. OKC killed Memphis in the Game 6 matchup to tie things up at 3-3, but now all the momentum is on the side of the Thunder and Kevin Durant has the chance to continue his strong play after being shut down in Game 5. Durant was ripped by his hometown paper a little too much and now he has the chance to respond again in Game 7 and the team is trying to avoid getting eliminated by the Grizzlies for the second straight season.
The Thunder are a couple years removed from an NBA finals run and they lost to the Miami Heat and LeBron James in that matchup and now they are looking to make a run as the number two seed in the league. The Thunder met up with Memphis in the second round last season and they had to play without a healthy Russell Westbrook and now the two teams are matching up again and things could take a turn because of who will not be on the floor. Conley may not be ready to go and with Nick Calathes suspended that means Beno Udrih will be getting the majority of play and that could turn the tide.
Marc Gasol will be the main focus for the Thunder and Tony Allen is coming in with an eye issue so he will not be 100 percent for the matchup and now whoever wins this game will play the winner of the LA Clippers and Golden State Warriors series. Memphis and OKC have played three times in the past four seasons and they know each other very well and Gasol comes in after having 17 points in the last game and Durant was fantastic, leading with 36 points and 10 rebounds, while Russell Westbrook had five assists.
Allen is playing after getting poked in the eye earlier in the day and Randolph made a huge mistake with the hit on Steven Adams and now his absence can be the difference, as he has been averaging a double-double and that will be very hard to make up, especially with other injuries to deal with. The Clippers and Warriors are playing the winner of this series, while the Portland Trail Blazers are waiting for the winner of the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs series and that could see an upset of the number one seed. Damian Lillard made an amazing shot to get the win for the Blazers into the next round and that was their first series win since 2000 and they are looking to keep that going.