The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered one of their worst losses of the season on Sunday in Milwaukee against the Bucks. While the quality of the loss wasn’t a terrible one, the 25-point deficit in the 118-93 decision was the third-largest margin of defeat for OKC all season long. The loss isn’t exactly cause to sound the alarm, but it’s fair to be concerned about why the loss took place.
Milwaukee is a quality interior team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brooke Lopez down low, and Chet Holmgren never really stood a chance. On top of that, OKC played outside of their typical flow of offense, settling for far too many jumpers outside the paint, and the result was the Bucks outscoring the Thunder 58-32 in the paint. On top of that, OKC shot a season-low 37.1% from the field—including an abysmal 23.3% from beyond the arc. With 12 games left in the regular season, the Thunder get the opportunity to make up for the loss with a new game tonight as they take on the Pelicans in New Orleans.
New Orleans has ridden a wave of varied levels of success for much of the season, and they are trending upward lately. Since sitting at 26-21 towards the end of January, the Pelicans have won 18 of their last 24 to move to 5th in the Western Conference standings with a record of 44-27. A win tonight over the Thunder would move them up to 4th ahead of the Clippers.
Tonight’s game is not going to be completely decided inside, but it will be important. After receiving a beating from the Bucks on Sunday, the Thunder have to be much more aggressive against the Pelicans. New Orleans is a top-10 rebounding team, and they are 10th in the league in both points in the paint and second chance points. Add to it that they are top 10 in both field goal percent and three-point percent, and OKC is going to have step up their defense.
New Orleans is also a quality defensive team, and they are right behind OKC in defensive rating. The Thunder are going to need a much better shooting performance than they exhibited on Sunday, but if they are able to knock down some shots as usual and string together some stops, they should be able to escape back to OKC with a win.
Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Smoothie King Center (New Orleans, Louisiana)
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, New Orleans Pelicans Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Josh Giddey
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Chet Holmgren
Pelicans
- PG: Herbert Jones
- SG: CJ McCollum
- SF: Trey Murphy III
- PF: Zion Williamson
- C: Jonas Valanciunas
Injury Report
Thunder
- Ousmane Dieng is OUT (G League — on assignment).
- Adam Flagler is OUT (G League — two-way).
- Keyontae Johnson is OUT (G League — two-way).
Pelicans
- Dyson Daniels is OUT (left knee meniscectomy).
- Malcolm Hill is OUT (G League — two-way).
- Brandon Ingram is OUT (bone contusion in left knee).
- E.J. Liddell is OUT (G League — on assignment).
- Dereon Seabron (G League — two-way).
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder are 33-21 against the Pelicans (17-10 at home, 16-11 on the road).
- The Thunder have won the season series with the Pelicans 10 times, tied it once, and lost it 4 times.
- The Thunder went 2-1 against the Pelicans last season in the regular season (1-1 at home, 1-0 on the road) and 1-0 in the play-in round of the postseason (1-0 on the road).
- The Thunder are 1-1 against the Pelicans so far this season (0-1 at home, 1-0 on the road).