Tip-Off: 6 PM CT
Location: Paycom Center (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 Oklahoma City Thunder continues to be an up and down team, and based on the continued injury report, you can expect more down than up as we finish out the last leg of the season. After picking up a shocking win in Denver against the Nuggets on Wednesday, the Thunder laid an egg at home on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Tonight the Thunder hosts the Utah Jazz, one of the top teams in the Western Conference. The Jazz are fresh off an embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, but they are still winners of 9 of their last 11. Donovan Mitchell is averaging 25.9 points per game, and 4 of his teammates are scoring in double digits on a nightly basis.
Utah’s high-powered offense is a key source for their success, but their defense isn’t too shabby either. The Thunder’s offense is the lowest-scoring in the league, but the defense has been especially tout lately, Friday night’s loss aside. The Jazz are a huge favorite tonight, but after the loss to Minnesota, I’m thinking OKC plays a lot closer tonight.
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Tre Mann
- SF: Aaron Wiggins
- PF: Aleksej Pokusevski
- C: Darius Bazley
Jazz
- PG: Trent Forrest
- SG: Donovan Mitchell
- SF: Bojan Bogdanovic
- PF: Royce O’Neale
- C: Rudy Gobert
Thunder
- Luguentz Dort is OUT (strained left shoulder).
- Derrick Favors is OUT (lower back soreness).
- Josh Giddey is OUT (right hip soreness).
- Ty Jerome is OUT (left hip soreness).
- Mike Muscala is OUT (right ankle soreness).
- Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is OUT (third metatarsal fracture in right foot).
- Isaiah Roby is OUT (lower back soreness).
- Aaron Wiggins is AVAILABLE.
- Kenrich Williams is OUT (sprained right knee).
Jazz
- Mike Conley is OUT (right knee injury maintenance).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 33-18 (20-5 at home, 13-13 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 twice, and tied once.
- The Thunder went 0-3 against the Jazz last season (0-2 at home, 0-1 on the road).
- The Thunder is 0-2 against the Jazz so far this season (0-1 at home, 0-1 on the road).