3. Danilo Gallinari, Oklahoma City Thunder
This one may come as more of a surprise addition to this list. Another player for an underdog that needs to make an impact is Danilo Gallinari of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Gallo has been an extremely solid player his entire career and has really found his place in Oklahoma City over the course of this season.
In the 2019-20 regular season, Gallinari averaged 18.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game on 44-41-89 shooting splits and posting a PER of 19.5. Excellent numbers across the board.
Gallo got a career-high in shot attempts per game (13.2), as well as a career-high in 3-point attempts (7.1) per game this season. A lot of that can be credited to Chris Paul coming over from Houston in the offseason in the trade for Russell Westbrook. Chris Paul is one of the all-time great point guards to ever play the game, and will instantly make anyone he is playing with better.
Another reason that could be looked at as to why Gallinari has seen more success this season in OKC is the emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA has taken a huge step in his development this year, which has drawn a lot of the defenses attention to him. This allows guys like Gallo to get plenty of open looks, especially with CP3 running the show.
And Gallinari has cashed in on his opportunities this year. He will need to continue to do so as the 5 seed Thunder take on James Harden and the 4 seed Houston Rockets. The Rockets have some good perimeter defenders in Robert Covington and Westbrook, as well as PJ Tucker who is one of the best all-around defenders in the league. It will be a tough test for this underdog Thunder team, especially with the playoff experience the Rockets have. If they are to pull off the upset in this series, they will need Danilo Gallinari to be on his game.