The Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t put it together on Tuesday in Salt Lake City as they fell to the Utah Jazz 124-117. OKC wraps up a brief road trip on Saturday afternoon as they take on the Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavs have had an up-and-down season, mostly due to injuries, but one constant has been that when Luka Doncic is healthy, he’s capable of putting up big numbers. At 34.6 points per game, Doncic leads the league in scoring, and just a couple of weeks ago he put up 73 against the Altanta Hawks. Add to it that he’s third in the NBA in assists with 9.5 per game, and he’s incredibly dynamic on the offensive end.
Defensively, however, Luka is a perfect picture of Dallas’s capabilities as a squad: they’re just not great at stopping other teams from doing what they do. OKC is coming off a pretty good offensive night, but they’ve had some defensive struggles themselves, so this game is likely going to come down to who can get a stop when it really counts.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 2 PM CT
Location: American Airlines Center (Dallas, Texas)
Television: Bally Sports Oklahoma, NBA TV
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, Dallas Mavericks Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Josh Giddey
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Chet Holmgren
Mavericks
- PG: Luka Doncic
- SG: Kyrie Irving
- SF: Josh Green
- PF: PJ Washington
- C: Daniel Gafford
Injury Report
Thunder
- Gordon Hayward is OUT (strained left calf).
- Keyontae Johnson is OUT (G League — two-way).
Mavericks
- Greg Brown III is OUT (G League — two-way).
- Luka Doncic is PROBABLE (broken nose)
- Dante Exum is OUT (right knee bursitis).
- Kyrie Irving is PROBABLE (sprained right thumb).
- Maxi Klieber is QUESTIONABLE (dislocated right small toe; nasal fracture).
- Dereck Lively II is OUT (nasal fracture).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 28-25 against the Mavericks in the regular season (15-11 at home, 13-14 on the road) and 9-5 in the playoffs (4-3 at home, 5-2 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Mavericks 5 times, lost 7 times, and tied 3 times.
- The Thunder went 2-1 against the Mavericks last season (1-0 at home, 1-1 on the road).
- The Tunder is 1-0 against the Mavericks so far this season (0-0 at home,1-0 on the road).