The end of the regular season is near, and for now, the Oklahoma City Thunder remains the top team in the league. With just 5 games remaining, OKC needs a combination of 3 wins/San Antonio Spurs losses to clinch the top seed in the Western Conference, ensuring home court advantage through the playoffs. The Thunder hosts the easiest of the remaining games tonight with the Utah Jazz in town.
Utah was knocked out of playoff contention a while ago, so they have no real benefit to winning games right now. The Jazz have an extensive injury report, and their starting five is mostly guys still in their early twenties. While their young players are talented, they do not have enough depth to maintain any type of consistency, which has led to 20 losses in their last 23 games.
The Thunder would have to fail in perhaps the most epic way to lose this game, but with the first round of the playoffs just a couple of weeks away, it’d be nice for them to do more than just win this one. When OKC’s defense is locked in from the first possession of the game, the Thunder looks like the best team in the league by far, not to mention if guys are knocking down shots from downtown. They did both of those things on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, leading to a 139-96 win. Continuing that momentum against a far less talented team like the Jazz will help in the standings, but it would also add to the confidence level that this team is capable of repeating as NBA Champs.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 6 PM CT
Location: Paycom Center (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
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, Utah Jazz Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Luguentz Dort
- SF: Jalen Williams
- PF: Chet Holmgren
- C: Isaiah Hartenstein
Jazz
- PG: Cody Williams
- SG: Brice Sensabaugh
- SF: John Konchar
- PF: Ace Bailey
- C: Kyle Filipowski
Injury Report
Thunder
- Thomas Sorber (right ACL surgical recovery) is OUT.
Jazz
- Isaiah Collier (strained left hamstring) is OUT.
- Keyonte George (strained right hamstring) is OUT.
- Elijah Harkless (strained left hamstring) is OUT.
- Blake Hinson (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (left knee injury recovery) is OUT.
- Walker Kessler (left shoulder injury recovery) is OUT.
- Lauri Markannen (right hip impingement) is OUT.
- Jusuf Nurkic (nose injury recovery) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 45-21 (27-6 at home, 18-15 on the road) against the Jazz in the regular season and 2-4 (2-1 at home, 0-3 on the road) in the playoffs.
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Jazz 13 times, lost it 3 times, and tied once.
- The Thunder went 4-0 against the Jazz last season (2-0 at home, 2-0 on the road).
- OKC is 3-0 against Utah so far this season (1-0 at home, 2-0 on the road).
- OKC has won 13 of the last 14 meetings with Utah, including the last 7 at the Paycom Center.