The Oklahoma City Thunder pulled off their biggest win of the season Tuesday night as they knocked off the Boston Celtics 127-123 at home. The win once again puts the Thunder into the national spotlight, and the question that continues to be asked at this point is “how far can this team go?”
OKC has plenty of opportunities to show what they’re made of this month as they have a league-high 5 back-to-backs starting with tonight’s second game of a back-to-back on the road against the Atlanta Hawks. Despite making it to the Eastern Conference Finals just a few years ago, the Hawks have fallen off badly. Despite having one of the league’s top offenses, they are just 13-19 on the season due to their bottom tier defense.
Despite the seemingly easily matchup, tonight’s game is a trap game for OKC. It would be far too easy to walk into Atlanta as if the result was already decided and roll over for a poor outing that leads to a loss. The Thunder is going to have slow down Trae Young and Dejounte Murray to an extent, but they should be able to score at will. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might be the most dangerous offensive player in the league at the moment, Jalen Williams is proving himself to be worth of All-Star Talk, Chet Holmgren is a serious contender for rookie of the year, and even Josh Giddey is hitting shots lately. All in all, it should be an electric game with plenty of points.
Tip-Off: 6:30 PM CT
Location: State Farm Arena (Atlanta, Georgia)
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, Atlanta Hawks Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Josh Giddey
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Chet Holmgren
Atlanta Hawks
- PG: Trae Young
- SG: Dejounte Murray
- SF: Saddiq Bey
- PF: Jalen Johnson
- C: Clint Capela
Injury Report
Thunder
- Ousmane Dieng is OUT (G League — on assignment).
- Keyontae Johnson is OUT (G League — two-way).
Hawks
- Kobe Bufkin is OUT (G League — on assignment).
- Mouhamed Gueye is OUT (stress fracture in right lower back).
- De’Andre Hunter is OUT (right knee inflammation).
- Vit Krejci is OUT (G League — two-way).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 17-12 against the Hawks (10-5 at home, 7-7 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Hawks 5 times, lost it 3 times, and tied 7 times.
- The Thunder went 1-1 against the Hawks last season (0-1 at home, 1-0 on the road).
- The Thunder is 1-0 against the Hawks so far this season (1-0 at home, 0-1 on the road).