The Oklahoma City Thunder trailed by 20 against the Golden State Warriors in OKC on Monday night, but that didn’t keep the Thunder’s young guns from putting together a comeback to make it a 2-point game midway through the fourth quarter. OKC was unable to complete the rally, but they came awfully close before falling to the Warriors 128-120.
The Thunder hits the road on Wednesday night to take on the ailing Houston Rockets. When it comes to tanking, nobody does it quite like the Rockets who are 16 of their last 19 games to get to 12-38 on the season. It’s not difficult to lose intentionally when you’re roster is as inexperienced and incomplete as Houston’s is, but it doesn’t help when guys are out due to injury as well. Still, when it comes down to it, the Rockets just aren’t very good (yet).
Houston is in a similar situation to OKC: working on a rebuild after losing long-time franchise players. The Thunder is doing a better job at it thus far, but that doesn’t mean the Rockets are too far behind. Regardless of what the future holds, OKC is the clear favorite in this matchup, and honestly, it shouldn’t even be a close one. With that in mind, the Thunder needs to head into Houston with a one-track mindset: take care of business and move on to the next one.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Toyota Center (Houston, Texas)
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, Houston Rockets Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Josh Giddey
- SF: Aaron Wiggins
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Kenrich Williams
Rockets
- PG: Daishen Nix
- SG: Eric Gordon
- SF: Kenyon Martin Jr.
- PF: Jabari Smith
- C: Alperen Sengun
Injury Report
Thunder
- Luguentz Dort is OUT (strained right hamstring).
- Chet Holmgren is OUT (right foot surgery).
- Eugene Omoruyi is OUT (G League — two-way).
- Aleksej Pokusevski is OUT (left tibial plateau; non-displaced fracture).
- Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is OUT (G League — two-way).
- Lindy Waters III is OUT (G League — two-way).
Rockets
- Darius Days is OUT (G League — on assignment).
- Jalen Green is OUT (right calf contusion).
- Trevor Hudgins is OUT (G League —two way).
- Kevin Porter Jr. is OUT (left foot contusion).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 24-26 against the Rockets in the regular season (16-9 at home, 8-17 on the road) and 7-9 against the Rockets in the playoffs (5-2 at home, 2-7 on the road).
- The Thunder has won the season series with the Rockets 7 times, lost it 5 times, and tied 2 times.
- The Thunder lost the regular season series last season against the Rockets 2-1 (1-0 at home, 0-2 on the road).
- The Thunder is 0-1 against the Rockets so far this season (0-0 at home, 0-1 on the road).