The Oklahoma City Thunder is 1-0 in their group play for the NBA Cup as they enter their matchup in San Antonio against the Spurs on Tuesday night. The Thunder is tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the top spot so far, and the Spurs are 0-1.
OKC looked like a team missing a couple of big men on Sunday as they suffered a narrow 121-119 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs nearly doubled the Thunder’s rebounding total as OKC struggled to get stops in every way. Trailing by double digits with under 2 minutes to play, the Thunder made a push late, and even had a chance to win at the buzzer, but they came up just short.
Tonight’s meeting with the Spurs will be about getting back on track defensively. San Antonio will likely be without Victor Wembanyama due to a right knee contusion, which is a major blow to their interior presence on both ends of the floor. If OKC can be more vigilant at the point of attack on defense, they should be able to slow down the Spurs and likely get out and score some points in transition.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 8:30 PM CT
Location: Frost Bank Center (San Antonio, Texas)
Television: TNT
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, San Antonio Spurs Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Cason Wallace
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Aaron Wiggins
- C: Jalen Williams
Spurs
- PG: Chris Paul
- SG: Stephon Castle
- SF: Justin Champagnie
- PF: Harrison Barnes
- C: Zach Collins
Injury Report
Thunder
- Isaiah Hartenstein (fractured left hand) is OUT.
- Chet Holmgren (fractured right iliac wing) is OUT.
- Isaiah Joe (left calf contusion) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (left ACL surgery recovery) is OUT.
- Jaylin Williams (strained right hamstring) is OUT.
Spurs
- David Duke Jr. (G League – two-way) is OUT.
- Harrison Ingram (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Riley Minix (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Jeremy Sochan (proximal phalanx in left hand surgery) is OUT.
- Victory Wembanyama (right knee contusion) is OUT.
- Devin Vassell (left knee soreness) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder are 29-29 against the Spurs in the regular season (20-10 at home, 9-19 away) and 10-8 against them in the playoffs (7-2 at home, 3-6 away).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City, the Thunder have won the season series with the Spurs 4 times, lost it 7 times, and tied 5 times.
- The Thunder went 3-1 against the Spurs last season (2-0 at home, 1-1 on the road).
- The Thunder is 1-0 against the Spurs so far this season (1-0 at home, 0-0 on the road).