Game 63 Pregame Primer: Thunder (38-24) @ Knicks (19-43)
Daily Thunder’s game day coverage is sponsored by Anthem Brewing Company
ESPN preview
Tip-off:
7:30pm @ Madison Square Garden, ? Fox Sports Oklahoma
Live tweeting:
Follow along with the Daily Thunder Twitter account during the game, run by Olivia Panchal tonight.
Memory Lane:
Projected starting lineups:
| Oklahoma City | New York |
| PG: Chris Paul | PG: Elfrid Payton |
| SG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | SG: R.J. Barrett |
| SF: Lu Dort | SF: Moe Harkless |
| PF: Danilo Gallinari | PF: Julius Randle |
| C: Steven Adams | C: Taj Gibson |
3 Big Things:
- Quick Notes: OKC has won 15 of its last 20. A win tonight would be the 11th road win in the last 12 tries. Mitchell Robinson is listed as QUESTIONABLE with a hamstring injury. Dennis Smith Jr. (Concussion) will miss tonight’s game. Darius Bazley remains out. Spike Lee has been self-ruled OUT for tonight’s game and the remainder of the season with a severe case of Dolan Virus.
- Area to Monitor: In a league gone small the Knicks play a billion forwards with mediocre guard play. This opens up a lot of advantages for OKC tonight, but one area where the Knicks thrive is offensive rebounding. New York averages over 12 offensive boards per game (1st in the league). Mitchell Robinson, Julius Randle and Taj Gibson all rank inside the top 50 league-wide. This will demand attention from Gallo/Shai/Lu to help Steven Adams down low. Keeping the Knicks’ “perimeter” guys away from long rebounds will go a long way towards a win tonight.
- The Chase for 50: In years past it wasn’t the elite teams that kept the Thunder from 50 wins, but the teams OKC played down to. With only 20 games left the Thunder is 38-24 which is exactly a 50-win pace. Incredible. But that means there’s no margin for error when it comes to games like this one. If this is going to be the year OKC clears the 50-win bar games like Wednesday night in Detroit and tonight in New York are the ones you have to bag. Go get it.
Game poll:
#COTN:
“That was a nice backdort cut” – @johnny stormchaser
a good Dort pun will almost always get you COTN. well played.
