It’s time for a series preview as the Clippers and Thunder will face off twice in a row on Friday night and Sunday afternoon at STAPLES Center. Can LAC keep their win streak alive with a sweep against their beloved former point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
Game Information
Where: STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT
How to Watch: Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Projected Starting Lineups
Thunder: George Hill — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — Luguentz “Lu” Dort — Darius Bazley — Isaiah Roby
Clippers: Patrick Beverley — Paul George — Kawhi Leonard — Nicolas Batum — Serge Ibaka
Injuries
Thunder: OUT — Ty Jerome (ankle); OUT — Al Horford (personal); OUT — Trevor Ariza (personal)
Clippers: N/A*
*UPDATE: After initially reporting no injuries, Nicolas Batum is now listed as “Questionable” for personal reasons.
The Big Picture
As this blog and our podcast have said before, the second half of January needs to be a month of the Clippers beating up on weaker teams. So far, the Clippers are holding up well, with five straight wins since Jan. 8th, and they have a great opprotunity to extend the streak tonight.
At a basic level, the Clippers once again have the stronger roster. The Thunder are also another team with an especially leaky defense (third worst defensive rating in the league) and are towards the bottom of the league in assist to turnover ratio. The Clippers — expected to be at full force again — should be able to put the Thunder away fairly easily.
The Antagonist
The Thunder do have a few things going for them, though. For one, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (a favorite of Clips Nation) has played well this year, averaging over 20 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.2 assists on 50.5% shooting. He leads the Thunder’s “Youth Corps,” which also includes Hamidou Diallo, Darius Bazley, and Lu Dort. If the Clippers come out slow in this game, it is entirely possible that the Thunder (who are 11th in Pace) could run away from the Clippers.
Defensively, the Thunder have also proven to be one of the better teams in the league at defending the three point line. They currently keep opponents to 35.6% from behind the arc, which is good enough for seventh in the league. The Clippers, of course, have depended on their shooting from deep heavily thus far, so perhaps the Thunder will force the Clippers to play outside of their preferred style.
Notes
- Shai: Shai will “return” to LA to face his former team and given that he’s still a Clips Nation favorite, let’s take a second to note his growth. As noted above, Shai’s stat line this year is very impressive. But his growth on the offensive end has really been special, probably best highlighted through his career-high 33 point game earlier this month against the Bulls. I think it is fair to say Clips Nation is rooting for Shai in the long term, even though it hurts to see him flourish after giving him up.
- Paul George: But if we’re going to talk about giving up Shai, we should also highlight who we got in return. George has been great his season, and it was nice to see him tie his career high in assists (12) against the Kings on Wednesday. So far, PG is averaging 24.4 points per game on 51.4/50.5/91% splits.
- Game Thread: The comments for this post will be our live game thread for tonight’s game! Sign up for a free account and hit the comments to discuss the game with other fans.
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