For the second time in just a few days, the Oklahoma City Thunder takes on the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. On Wednesday night, the Thunder played with embarrassing effort in a 112-106 loss to the Rockets in Houston, but now the teams will play in OKC.
In the days since the Thunder played last, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was selected as a Western Conference All-Star Reserve. With that recent news, Shai might have a little extra incentive to play a complete game against the Rockets, especially after the poor overall team performance on Wednesday. OKC is the better team, especially since Houston is missing two of their starters due to injury with Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr. missing, so they should the Thunder need to bounce back and get the win.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 7 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
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 — on assignment).
- Lindy Waters III is OUT (G League — two-way).
Rockets
- Darius Days is OUT (G League — two-way).
- 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 24-27 against the Rockets in the regular season (16-9 at home, 8-18 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 0-2 against the Rockets so far this season (0-0 at home, 0-2 on the road).