After narrowly escaping Brooklyn with a win against the Nets on Wednesday, the Oklahoma City Thunder continue their 3-game road trip on Friday night in Atlanta as they take on Trae Young and the Hawks.
The Hawks sit at 9th in the Eastern Conference standings with a 27-32 record, and they have been injury-plagued for much of the season. Trae Young is still the engine that makes this team go, and if Dyson Daniels isn’t a household name yet, he should be. Daniels leads the league in steals by a margin, and he’s the type of guy that fits into conversation with Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace.
As a team, Atlanta is not a great defensive unit, so the Thunder should be able to put up some points. Daniels will likely be tasked with guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, so OKC will have to continue to manage life with the ball out of Shai’s hands. The Hawks have been more of an offensive-minded team for years now, and that should be the expectation tonight as well.
The Thunder allowed the Nets—one of the league’s worst-scoring offenses—to rack up 76 points in the first half on Wednesday night. That type of lackluster defense is not OKC’s norm, and with the way they finished on that end of the floor, I would expect them to come out with a renewed focus and energy.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 6:30 PM CT
Location: State Farm Arena (Atlanta, Georia)
Television: FanDuel Sports Network – 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: Luguentz Dort
- SF: Jalen Williams
- PF: Chet Holmgren
- C: Isaiah Hartenstein
Hawks
- PG: Trae Young
- SG: Dyson Daniels
- SF: Zaccharie Risacher
- PF: Mouhamed Gouye
- C: Onyeka Okongwu
Injury Report
Thunder
- Branden Carlson (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Alex Caruson (rest) is OUT.
- Alex Ducas (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Isaiah Hartenstein (nasal fractured) is AVAILABLE.
- Dillon Jones (G League — on assignment) is OUT.
- Ajay Mitchell (sprained right great toe) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (left knee surgery) is OUT.
Hawks
- Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery) is OUT.
- Jalen Johnson (left shoulder surgery) is OUT.
- Vit Krejci (fractured lumbar) is OUT.
- Larry Nance Jr. (fractured right medial femoral condyle) is OUT.
- Daeqwon Plowden (G League — two-way) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Trae Young (right Achilles tendinitis) is PROBABLE.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 18-13 against the Hawks (11-5 at home, 7-8 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 8 times.
- The Thunder went 1-1 against the Hawks last season (1-0 at home, 0-1 on the road).
- So far this season, the Thunder is 1-0 against the Hawks (1-0 at home, 0-0 on the road).