Tip-Off: 9 PM CT
Location: Staples Center (Los Angeles, California)
Television: Fox Sports Oklahoma
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live-tweets and discussion during the game
The Oklahoma City Thunder just finished up a home stand which included back-to-back 2-game series with the Houston Rockets and the Minnesota Timberwolves, and now the Thunder travels to LA where they will play another 2-game series, this time against the Lakers.
OKC managed to split with both the Rockets and the Timberwolves, but they will have to almost get flat out lucky to pick up a win against Los Angeles. The Lakers are 18-6 overall, and their 4-game win streak has them sitting at 2nd in the West, just a game behind the streaking Utah Jazz. Meanwhile, the Thunder is 10-12 and not even in contention for the play-in round for the 8th seed in the playoffs.
OKC has done a pretty good job at staying competitive in what can only be described as a rebuilding year, but their schedule hasn’t been all that tough just yet. Now that they are getting into some of the tougher teams in the league, I’d be surprised to see very many wins for quite some time. However, if the Thunder can stay competitive and continue to develop, then there really isn’t any reason to complain.
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Luguentz Dort
- SF: Kenrich Williams
- PF: Darius Bazley
- C: Al Horford
Lakers
- PG: Dennis Schröder
- SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
- SF: Lebron James
- PF: Anthony Davis
- C: Marc Gasol
Injuries
Thunder
- Trevor Ariza is OUT (not with team).
- Moses Brown is OUT (G League; two-way).
- Josh Hall is OUT (G League; two-way).
- George Hill is OUT (right thumb surgery).
- Ty Jerome is OUT (G League; two-way).
- Theo Maledon is OUT (health and safety protocols).
- Mike Muscala is OUT (concussion protocol).
- Aleksej Pokusevski (G League; two-way).
- Isaiah Roby is OUT (right foot soreness).
Lakers
- Kostas Antetokounmpo is OUT (right knee; patellar tendinitis).
- Anthony Davis is QUESTIONABLE (right achilles tendonosis).
- Jared Dudley is OUT (right calf soreness).
- Lebron James is PROBABLE (sprained left ankle).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 24-19 against the Lakers (13-9 at home, 11-10 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Lakers 7 times, lost 4 times, and tied once.
- The Thunder went 1-3 (0-2 at home, 1-1 on the road) against the Lakers last season.
- The Thunder is 0-1 (0-1 at home, 0-0 on the road) against the Lakers so far this season.