Less than two weeks ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder suffered their 6th loss in 12 games, a 124-97 blowout at home to the Charlotte Hornets. The sky appeared to be falling for a lot of Thunder fans. Since then, however, OKC has won 5 straight, including wins of 20+ in the last two against the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets. Now the Thunder continues a 4-game road trip with a stop in Miami against the Heat.
The Thunder and the Heat just played in OKC last Sunday—a 124-112 win for the Thunder. Miami played OKC close in the first half, even leading by 5 at halftime, but the Thunder put together one of their patented third-quarter bursts to take over and cruise through the fourth period unscathed. OKC is near full health at this point in the season—Isaiah Hartenstein remains out—but Miami is dealing with a handful of key injuries ahead of tonight’s game.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a tough time scoring against Houston on Friday, but Miami will be without Davion Mitchell tonight, so I think SGA has a pretty good night on the offensive end. As for the defensive side of the ball, OKC has had opponents in a chokehold lately, holding both San Antonio and Houston to below 100 points.
Depending upon who’s good to go for Miami, the Heat have plenty of solid scoring options, but their defense isn’t exactly what the organization has been known for in recent years. OKC should be able to move on to their next game with a solid win, but continued dominance would be nice to see.
Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Kaseya Center (Miami, Florida)
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, Miami Heat Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Luguentz Dort
- SF: Aaron Wiggins
- PF: Jalen Williams
- C: Chet Holmgren
Heat
- PG: Tyler Herro
- SG: Norman Powell
- SF: Pelle Larson
- PF: Andrew Wiggins
- C: Bam Adebayo
Injury Report
Thunder
- Isaiah Hartenstein (strained left soleus) is OUT.
- Thomas Sorber (right ACL surgical recovery) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (surgical recovery) is OUT.
Heat
- Myron Gardner (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Vladislav Goldin (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Tyler Herro (right big toe/rib contusion) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Jaime Jacquez Jr. (sprained left knee) is OUT.
- Nikola Jovic (right knee soreness) is AVAILABLE.
- Pelle Larsson (left 3rd mallet finger) is AVAILABLE.
- Davion Mitchell (left shoulder contusion) is OUT.
- Jahmir Young (G League — two-way) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City, the Thunder is 19-16 against the Heat (10-9 at home, 9-7 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City, the Thunder have won the season series 6 times, lost it 5 times, and tied 6 times.
- Last season, the Thunder went 2-0 against the Heat (1-0 at home, 1-0 on the road).
- OKC is 1-0 against the Heat so far this season (1-0 at home, 0-0 on the road).
- OKC has won 5 consecutive matchups against Miami, including the last two at the Kaseya Center.