The Thunder are back on the road Thursday night for their first meeting with the Rockets since that wild, double-overtime season opener nearly three months ago. Oklahoma City arrives riding momentum from a 119-98 win over San Antonio <\/p>\n
Houston, meanwhile, is in a different kind of fight. The Rockets are trying to stabilize after a rough West Coast trip and some ugly offensive stretches.<\/p>\n
\n Game info<\/p>\n
Date: Thursday, Jan. 15
Time: 6:30 p.m. CST (7:30 p.m. ET)
Where: Toyota Center (Houston)
TV: FanDuel Sports Network
Streaming: Prime Video<\/p>\n
\n OKC beats Spurs<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City\u2019s 119-98 win over the Spurs wasn\u2019t just a \u201cnice bounce-back.\u201d It was a reminder of what the Thunder look like when everything matches up pressure defense, paint touches, and that third-quarter surge that turns a close game into separation.<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 34 points on 11-for-23 shooting, and the Thunder\u2019s league-best defense set the tone. Against San Antonio, OKC forced 12 turnovers, held the Spurs to 40% shooting, and edged the rebounding battle 43-42. Offensively, it wasn\u2019t perfect, but it was connected: 56 points in the paint, 26 assists, and 27 free throw attempts.<\/p>\n
As Gilgeous-Alexander put it, the defensive recipe was simple and physical: \u201cWe did a good job of keeping them in front of us\u2026 keeping our body in between their body as they drive\u2026 and then they had to score over top of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when the Thunder are getting stops, everything opens up on the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of both screening, playing with pace,\u201d Shai said. \u201cBut also, when you\u2019re able to get stops and play in the open floor, things come more naturally\u2026 You\u2019ve got to play in space. Playing in a crowd is not the recipe against a good defensive team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Mark Daigneault\u2019s message<\/p>\n
After the Spurs win, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault sounded less like a coach celebrating a January win and more like a coach guarding the standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single game\u2019s an opportunity to be as consistent to your identity as you can,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cEven in the worst games, you have great possessions; even in the best games, you have bad possessions. We\u2019re just trying to be as consistent as possible, possession-by-possession, game after game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the Thunder\u2019s energy and togetherness as the baseline before anything else matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a prerequisite if you want to win the game,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to bring a certain compete level and a certain togetherness\u2026 From there, you can focus on executing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the version of OKC that showed up Tuesday especially in the third quarter, when Shai scored 15 in the period, Jalen Williams added 10, and the Thunder shot nearly 70% in the quarter while ripping off a 22-7 run to end it.<\/p>\n
Injury report<\/b> (as of 1:30 Thursday)<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n
Luguentz Dort \u2014 Questionable: Injury\/Illness (left foot soreness)
Isaiah Hartenstein \u2014 Out: Injury\/Illness (right soleus strain)<\/p>\n
Houston Rockets<\/p>\n
Isaiah Crawford \u2014 Out: G League (Two-Way)
Tari Eason \u2014 Out: Injury\/Illness (right ankle sprain)
Dorian Finney-Smith \u2014 Out: Injury\/Illness (left ankle injury management)
Tristen Newton \u2014 Out: G League (Two-Way)<\/p>\n
\n Jaylin Williams: \u201cWe love to muck the game up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaylin Williams has been back in the mix, and he sounded like a guy who\u2019s been waiting to feel the juice again the crowd, the runs, the collisions, the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Offensively, he credited OKC\u2019s downhill style for why the paint opened up: \u201cJust our normal way of playing basketball collisions, setting screens, gassing it off the screen. We have some of the best\u2026 guys for downhill attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
And defensively, he said the Thunder\u2019s blue-collar group embraces the grime: \u201cI think I\u2019m speaking for all three of us when I say we love to muck the game up\u2026 be physical, compete, those type of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also admitted the time away made the moments feel bigger: \u201cYou don\u2019t realize how much you miss or love something until you don\u2019t have it\u2026 I\u2019m a competitor. I love to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Jalen Williams: Attention to detail is the whole thing<\/p>\n
For Jalen Williams, the Spurs game was a reminder of what it looks like when OKC plays connected for a full 48.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust did a really good job of paying attention to detail throughout the whole entire game,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you play a team that good, it forces you to be on your P\u2019s and Q\u2019s the whole entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to ball movement as the doorway to easy offense even when the shot isn\u2019t falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a team where when the ball moves, it has energy,\u201d JDub said. \u201cEven on nights where you don\u2019t shoot the ball well, when you move it, you get those cracks at layups.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201cenergy offense\u201d is exactly what Houston will try to take away.<\/p>\n
\n Houston Homestand<\/p>\n
The Rockets enter Thursday 23-14 and sixth in the West, just 2.5 games behind the No. 2 seed but their offense has sputtered lately, especially from deep. They\u2019ve shot below 30% from three in each of their last five games, and they\u2019ve needed more help beyond their top guys.<\/p>\n
Jabari Smith Jr. had been stuck in a brutal January slump (30.1% shooting this month, 17.1% from three entering the game), then missed his first five 3s Tuesday\u2026 before flipping the night in the fourth quarter with 10 points, including a late sequence with two huge threes.<\/p>\n
Houston needs that confidence to spread, because the Rockets are heading into a homestand that can shape the next chunk of their season. Rockets have only played 14 home games so far this season, the lowest total in the NBA. They play 13 of their next 20 at home. <\/p>\n
\n The matchup to watch: OKC\u2019s pressure vs. Houston\u2019s trio<\/p>\n
The Rockets\u2019 triple threat of Kevin Durant (26.1 ppg), Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn (21.7) and Amen Thompson (18.8) has been productive together, posting a combined 120.7 offensive rating seventh-best among all trios.<\/p>\n
But the Thunder are built to squeeze the air out of possessions when they\u2019re locked in and Daigneault tied that directly to how OKC starts its offense and sets its defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with your offense\u2026 taking rhythmic, predictable shots\u2026 and then getting back, setting your defense with great precision and focus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Oklahoma City, Thursday is another chance to string together \u201cidentity games\u201d the kind where the defense travels and the offense doesn\u2019t stall into isolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Thunder are back on the road Thursday night for their first meeting with the Rockets since that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-518717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115900998200243382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}