The Oklahoma City Thunder will look to move closer to clinching the best record in the Western Conference when they travel to San Antonio to face the struggling, short-handed Spurs on Sunday.
The Thunder have won two consecutive games and four of their past five, including a 135-119 victory at Atlanta on Friday. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points for Oklahoma City while Luguentz Dort and Jalen Williams scored 20 each as the Thunder made 23 of their 50 3-point shots.
Gilgeous-Alexander said the success from long distance comes from the work the Thunder put in during practice.
“It’s gonna fluctuate,” he said. “You just gotta trust your work and take good shots, and it’ll happen for you.”
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the goal is to “help his players shoot their shots.”
“(We want the players to) understand what a good shot is for them as it relates to our team, and then give them the confidence to shoot that in every circumstance,” Daigneault said. “And if you get it going, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should be expanding, (but) that you just keep doubling down.
“You don’t score the way we’re scoring as consistently as we’re scoring without nice balance.”
Oklahoma City, which leads the West by 9 1/2 games over the second-place Denver Nuggets and owns the second-best record in the league, a game behind Cleveland, has split the first two contests over the Spurs this season, winning at home on Oct. 30 and losing on the road on Nov. 19.
The Thunder will be without center Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Joe on Sunday. Holmgren was forced from the Atlanta game Friday in the first half with a left ankle sprain. Joe did not play the second half after his lower back tightened.
Sunday will be the second game of a road-home, back-to-back for San Antonio and its first true home game since Feb. 1. The Spurs dropped eight of the 12 contests during their annual Rodeo Road Trip but head home with a stirring 130-128 win at short-handed Memphis on Saturday.
De’Aaron Fox scored 20 points and hit the game-winning jumper with 2.6 seconds left on Saturday to snap San Antonio’s four-game losing streak. Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 24 points off the bench, with Devin Vassell adding 20, Jeremy Sochan tallying 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie scoring 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Perhaps the Spurs were inspired by a meeting Thursday in practice with coach Gregg Popovich, who is sitting out the rest of this season after suffering a stroke in November. Several of San Antonio’s players spoke on Saturday for the first time about Popovich’s visit.
“He had some spirited words about how we’ve been playing,” forward Harrison Barnes said. “(There were a few of the four-letter variety) sprinkled in. That’s how you know he’s doing well.”
Interim coach Mitch Johnson said Popovich’s absence has been “tough for him — and for us.”
“(Popovich) knows that we have his back, and he’s just got to keep fighting, keep confident every day and keep going every day …” Johnson said. “He’s going to do that. We know that 100 percent.”
The Spurs have lost four of the six games since losing star center Victor Wembanyama for the rest of the season to a blood clot in his right shoulder.
This will be the first home game for Fox, who was acquired from Sacramento in a trade on Feb. 2 — the day after the Spurs began their month-long road trip.
–Field Level Media
