For the 6th time in their last 8 meetings the Thunder dropped the ball against the Lakers and lost 112-105. For some reason they just cannot compete with the team in purple and gold, even when Shai Gilgeous Alexander is playing. SGA had 24 points on the night, but as a team OKC was very inefficient from the field shooting under 42% from the field and 30% from three. The good news is they get a chance to redeem themselves less than 24 hours later, but the bad news is it’s the LA Clippers they have to go up against. Similarly to their record against the Lakers, the Thunder are only 1-9 SU in their last 10 road games vs the Clippers. So even if they’re 4-1 SU in games played on a 2nd night of a back-to-back, I’m not feeling too good about their chances here.
Despite knocking down 17 threes, LA lost to Minnesota in their last game 109-105 on the road. That was a really disappointing performance as they could have further shortened the gap atop of the Western Conference with a victory. I’m not too worried about them here though, they’re currently on a 5-game win streak in home games, plus in games played vs teams from their own conference they’re 8-3 ATS in their last 11. The only problem they could have here is rebounding with center Ivica Zubac ruled out due to a calf injury. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Daniel Theis can fill in the role of the main rebounder, plus the Clippers can just speed up the pace of the game against a team that’s fatigued from just playing last night.
