Half a season of basketball has been played since these teams met back in October for the NBA’s season opener, a 125-124 double-overtime victory for the Thunder in OKC. Since then, the Thunder has been the most dominant team in the league, and Houston has had to weather the ebbs and flows of a long season. Still, when these two teams are slated to play, it’s safe to say that the whole league is going to be looking in on the result.
The Thunder successfully overcame a lull in December that was largely due to consecutive losses to the San Antonio Spurs, but after getting back on track and picking up a win over the Spurs on Tuesday night, it feels like they’ve refocused and returned to the 0-0 mentality. Meanwhile, the Rockets were living near the top of the Western Conference standings, right behind OKC, but they have lost 4 of their last 6 and 9 of their last 17.
Despite recent success, Houston is a solid team at home, dropping just two losses—both by single-digits—so OKC should be ready for a tough one. The Thunder is a small favorite, one of OKC’s lowest spreads all season, so it’s going to take another special performance to pull out a win.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 6:30 PM CT
Location: Toyota Center (Houston, Texas)
Television: Prime Video
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, Houston Rockets Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Cason Wallace
- SF: Aaron Wiggins
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Chet Holmgren
Rockets
- PG: Amen Thompson
- SG: Kevin Durant
- SF: Josh Okogie
- PF: Jabari Smith Jr.
- C: Alperen Sengun
Injury Report
Thunder
- Luguentz Dort (left foot soreness) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Isaiah Hartenstein (strained left soleus) is OUT.
- Thomas Sorber (right ACL surgical recovery) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (surgical recovery) is OUT.
Rockets
- Isaiah Crawford (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Tari Eason (sprained right ankle) is OUT.
- Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) is OUT.
- Tristen Newton (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Fred VanVleet (right knee ACL repair) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 32-32 against the Rockets in the regular season (23-11 at home, 9-21 on the road) and 7-9 against the Rockets in the playoffs (5-2 at home, 2-7 on the road).
- The Thunder has won the season series with the Rockets 7 times, lost it 5 times, and tied 5 times.
- The Thunder went 3-2 against the Rockets last season (2-0 at home, 0-2 on the road, 1-0 at a neutral location).
- OKC is 1-0 against Houston so far this season (1-0 at home, 0-0 on the road).
- The Thunder has defeated the Rockets just once in the last 8 tries at the Toyota Center.