After a long, exciting offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder is finally back and ready to play basketball as they kickoff the regular season Wednesday night in Minnesota against the Timberwolves. As has been the case for the past couple of seasons, the Thunder has quite a few new faces on the roster, and the Timberwolves are a little revamped as well.
On July 6, the Timberwolves traded for Rudy Gobert, who spent his first 8 seasons in the NBA with the Utah Jazz. After losing in the first round of the playoffs last season, Minnesota wants to make it even further this year, and their player movement in the offseason speaks to that.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said yesterday after practice that he expects everybody on the team to be available except for injured rookie Chet Holmgren. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not play during the preseason due to a sprained MCL, so it will be especially exciting to see him back in action.
While this season is expected to be another one of tanking—hopefully for the last time—there is plenty to be excited about. The roster has a lot of youthful talent, including some brand new faces, so it should be fun watching these guys develop and learn to play together.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Target Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Television: Bally Sports Oklahoma
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live tweets and discussion during the game
Game Notes: Oklahoma City Thunder Official Game Notes, Minnesota Timberwolves Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Josh Giddey
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Aleksej Pokusevski
- C: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
Timberwolves
- PG: D’Angelo Russell
- SG: Anthony Edwards
- SF: Jaden McDaniels
- PF: Karl-Anthony Towns
- C: Rudy Gobert
Injury Report
Thunder
- Chet Holmgren is OUT (right foot surgery).
Timberwolves
- Erich Paschall is OUT (tendinosis in left ankle/Achilles).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 35-18 against the Timberwolves (18-8 at home, 17-10 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the 4-game regular season series against the Timberwolves 9 times, lost it twice, and tied it twice.
- The Thunder went 0-4 (0-2 at home, 0-2 on the road) against the Timberwolves last season.