Thunder vs Lakers: Pregame Primer

vs.

Thunder (32-27, 13-19 road) vs. Lakers (16-41, 8-22 home)

TV: ESPN/FS Oklahoma
Stream:  Click here
Radio:  WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1300 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 5:30 CT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.0 (13th), Lakers  – 104.0 (20th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.3 (9th), Lakers – 110.8 (29th)

Another injury do to friendly fire will cause Russell Westbrook to miss tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Westbrook joins Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant on the sidelines as injuries have clouded a once star-filled night at Staples Center.

The Thunder look to avoid a winless west-coast trip and maintain its lead for 8th place in the West. OKC, at 32-27, holds a .5 game lead over New Orleans heading into Sunday’s games.

The Thunder are 4-10 when neither Durant nor Westbrook play. Those games took place between Nov. 1-26, a period now knows as The Great Depression II. Reggie Jackson played in the final 13 of those games and averaged 20.2 points over that stretch.

The Thunder won the only other meeting between this teams back on Dec. 19 104-103 as Westbrook had 31 points and 10 assists, while Kobe Bryant missed 12-15 shots scoring just nine.

3 Big Things

1. D.J. Tonight the offense is turned over to D.J. Augustin who’s playing better and better by the game. Augustin averaged 34 mpg while filling in for Brandon Jennings in Detroit and will most likely see big minutes in this one as OKC’s only point guard.

He’ll face rookie Jordan Clarkson from LAL today who’s averaging just 8 points and two assists but has seen an increase in minutes recently. In his last two games Clarkson is averaging 19 points including a team-high 16 in LA’s win over Milwaukee on Friday.

2. Pace. Oklahoma City has explored slowing the pace down and making games more about defensive intensity and execution with its two stars out. Augustin is a guard that can thrive at multiple speeds, giving Brooks some flexibility and options depending on how the first six minutes play out. If the defense comes out sharp both in the half court and in transition the Thunder could get some easy looks in transition.

3. Shooting. The Thunder are obviously short-handed, but they’re also deeper now than they were back in November. There’s more ball-handling and shooting than there was back then, and it needs to show today. Anthony Morrow is cooking from beyond the arc right now and could have a big game today. Singler has had a rocky shooting start so far with the Thunder, but may see extended minutes today thus creating more opportunities. If Ibaka-Morrow-Augustin-Singler and others can shoot a solid percentage against this bad Lakers defense the Thunder will be just fine. But we’ve seen misses become really contagious without Durant and Westbrook. Need to avoid that.

Friday’s COTN: “DJ could do everything wrong, but he steals my heart when he shoots those buzzer beaters.” – @Durants Shimmy

I believe it was Carson Cunningham who tweeted that Augustin is subtweeting Reggie with his half-court shots. *Fav. *RT.

Tip at 5:30 CT. Go Beat LA.