The Oklahoma City Thunder continues their brief road trip on Saturday evening as they take on a New Orleans Pelicans squad that is nearing full strength. The Pelicans have dealt with a slew of injuries all season long, but with most of their rotation guys back in action on Thursday, they narrowly defeated the Phoenix Suns and appear to be moving in a more positive direction.
OKC, on the other, continued their dominance of teams with a record below .500 on Thursday as they absolutely dominated the Toronto Raptors. The Thunder has yet to play a game completely healthy, yet they hold the best record in the West at 17-5. Oklahoma City got the best of New Orleans about a month ago in OKC, but this game should be more competitive considering who all is back in action for the Pelicans. Still, the Thunder is playing as good as anyone in the league right now, so don’t be surprised if this is another double-digit road victory for OKC.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 6 PM CT
Location: Smoothie King Center (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Television: FanDuel TV – 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: Cason Wallace
- SF: Luguentz Dort
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Isaiah Hartenstein
Pelicans
- PG:Dejounte Murray
- SG: CJ McCollum
- SF: Brandon Ingram
- PF: Herbert Jones
- C: Yves Missi
Injury Report
Thunder
- Ousmane Dieng (small fracture in right ring finger) is OUT.
- Alex Ducas (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Chet Holmgren (fractured right iliac wing) is OUT.
- Dillon Jones (G League — on assignment) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (left ACL surgery recovery) is OUT.
- Jaylin Williams (strained right hamstring) is OUT.
Pelicans
- Jose Alvarado (strained left hamstring) is OUT.
- Jordan Hawkins (annular fissure in lumbar spine) is OUT.
- Karlo Matkovic (lower back soreness) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Antonio Reeves (G League — on assignment) is OUT.
- Daniel Theis (neck spasm) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Zion Williamson (strained left hamstring) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 36-21 against the Pelicans (18-10 at home, 17-11 on the road) in the regular season and 4-0 against them in the playoffs (2-0 at home, 2-0 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 (0-1 at home, 2-0 on the road) and 4-0 against them in the playoffs (2-0 at home, 2-0 on the road).
- The Thunder is 1-0 against the Pelicans so far this season (1-0 at home, 0-0 on the road).