A look at three key numbers related to Thursday’s game at the Smoothie King Center between Oklahoma City and New Orleans (7 p.m., TNT, WRNO 99.5 FM):
75.7: Combined average points per game for Kevin Durant (27.7), Russell Westbrook (24.0) and Anthony Davis (24.0), who are the NBA’s third-, seventh- and eighth-leading scorers, respectively. All three will be on the floor Thursday, for Oklahoma City’s only visit to the Smoothie King Center of the 2015-16 regular season. Even more impressively, Durant, Westbrook and Davis are 2-3-5 in Player Efficiency Rating (PER). Stephen Curry leads in the league in the latter statistic at 32.32.
1: Oklahoma City’s rank in offensive rebounding percentage, which measures the rate of boards at the offensive end per possession. Via NBA.com, the Thunder’s 30.4 percent is better than any team by a fairly significant margin, with the Pistons second at 27.3 percent. New Orleans is 25th in the category, with a 21.2 percent rate. Enes Kanter tops OKC with a 16.2 percent offensive rebound rate, followed by Nick Collison (11.6) and Steven Adams (11.5).
7, 12: Rank in pace for Oklahoma City and New Orleans, respectively. Both teams are more effective when they’re able to push the ball and get easy baskets. The Thunder’s transition game is particularly dangerous when Westbrook gets either a steal or a defensive rebound, then immediately heads to the other end. Keep in mind, the perennial All-Star leads OKC in steals per game (2.2) and is third in rebounds (7.5), somewhat rare for a point guard.
