Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Chesapeake Energy Arena (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Television: Bally Sports Oklahoma
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live-tweets and discussion during the game
The final road trip of the season is complete for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and now they can ride out the season at home. With just 2 games left, Thunder fans can finally rest easy knowing that the Thunder is most certainly in a good position come time for the draft lottery. Still, the games must be played, and while the Thunder isn’t concerned with winning, that’s not the case with the Utah Jazz, OKC’s opponent for tonight.
The Jazz are currently sitting atop the Western Conference standings, and if they want to clinch the 1-seed, winning their final two games would be their best bet. Utah has the Thunder tonight and the Sacrament Kings up next, so that shouldn’t be too difficult, but nothing is locked up yet. The Phoenix Suns are right behind the Jazz, and they own the tiebreaker with Utah, so at this point, it’s basically who finished with a better record through 2 games.
Despite the mounting losses, the Thunder young guns have continued to show up ready to play, and I would expect nothing but their very best tonight. Their best, however, is not likely to end in victory, so just buckle in for the last few days, and then we can completely turn our focus to the NBA Draft Lottery.
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Theo Maledon
- SG: Kenrich Williams
- SF: Aleksej Pokuševski
- PF: Darius Bazley
- C: Moses Brown
Jazz
- PG: Royce O’Neale
- SG: Bojan Bogdanovic
- SF: Joe Ingles
- PF: Georges Niang
- C: Rudy Gobert
Injuries
Thunder
- Luguentz Dort is QUESTIONABLE (patellar tendinitis in right knee).
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is OUT (plantar fasciitis in right foot).
- Ty Jerome is QUESTIONABLE (strained left calf).
- Mike Muscala is OUT (right ankle sprain).
Jazz
- Mike Conley is QUESTIONABLE (right hamstring tightness).
- Donovan Mitchell is OUT (sprained right ankle).
- Juwan Morgan is QUESTIONABLE (right heel soreness).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 33-15 (20-3 at home, 13-12 on the road) against the Jazz in the regular season and 2-4 (2-1 at home, 0-3 on the road) in the playoffs.
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Jazz 10 times, lost it once, and tied once.
- The Thunder went 2-1 against the Jazz last season (1-0 at home, 1-1 on the road).
- The Thunder is 0-2 against the Jazz so far this season (0-1 at home, 0-1 on the road).