It wasn’t all that long ago when the Oklahoma City Blue looked like a clear-cut contender in the G-League. Starting the season 7-1, the Blue positioned themselves in a three-way tie for first place — now they’re vying for a final playoff spot.
After dropping four of their last five games, Oklahoma City currently wobbles at 8-6 on the season, gripping onto a one game advantage over the 7-7 G-League Ignite.
The Blue appeared to be locks even in the midst of their current losing streak, but almost that could have went wrong for the team — has. Rio Grande lost their battle with Oklahoma City 125-114 last month, since then, they’ve won six straight games. A Vipers-Ignite game earlier this week would’ve punched the Blue a ticket albeit the Ignite one, but a 130-107 Vipers throbbing extinguished their hopes. Rio Grande wasn’t done yet, clinching their spot Friday evening after ending Santa Cruz’s 9-game winning streak with a 110-94 defeat.
The Blue funnily enough end their regular-season campaign against the Santa Cruz Warriors midday Saturday, and now their is no more free-passes.
Oklahoma City needs either a win against Santa Cruz, or a G-League loss to the Austin Spurs for the final playoff spot to be secured. Both the Warriors and Spurs clock in with 10-4 records. The Blue and Ignite drown upon three-game losing steaks respectively, shining some light for an Ignite loss, yet that logic fell face-first with Rio Grande.
Due to tiebreakers, a Blue win will propel the team into a first-round matchup against the #3 seed Delaware Blue Coats (10-4) regardless of their upcoming matchup. Delaware is the lone top seed Oklahoma City has ousted to this point, beating the Blue Coats 129-114.
A victory against Santa Cruz will need to be accrued in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence, though that should be the least of their worries come gametime.