Thunder @ New Orleans Pelicans preview (Game 15 of 82)

Oklahoma City Thunder (13-1, 1st in the West) @ New Orleans Pelicans (2-11, 15th in the West)
When: Monday, 17 November 2025 at 7:00pm CST
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
Offensive Rating: NO: 107.6 (27th) / OKC: 118.2 (5th)
Defensive Rating: NO: 120.7 (28th) / OKC: 102.8 (1st)
Net Rating: NO: -13.1 (28th) / OKC: 15.4 (1st)

The Set-Up

These are two teams heading in completely opposite directions. Oklahoma City is the defending champions and have a coffer filled with draft picks and assets, with none of their draft picks being in jeopardy of going to another team. New Orleans, on the other hand, is stuck somewhere between a rebuild and a fringe playoff team, with a star player that can never stay healthy or perform to his maximum potential and some possible juicy draft picks that may be heading to other teams in the near future. OKC has a coach who is often mentioned with the other top coaches in the league. New Orleans has an interim coach who is currently 0-1. When we say appreciate what the Thunder has, don’t take it lightly. So many other teams in the league don’t operate with an efficient sense of purpose. They don’t rely on data, experience, and hard truths. Instead, they operate using the hope principle, whether deserved or not.

This is the 2nd of three meetings this season between the Thunder and Pelicans. Oklahoma City won the first meeting 137-106 a little over two weeks ago in OKC. In that game, the Thunder tied a franchise record with eight players scoring in double figures.

Betting Info, presented by Fan Duel

Line: OKC -17.5
O/U: 224.5

Injury Report

OKC

Alex Caruso – Questionable (hand)
Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)
Nikola Topic – OUT (cancer treatment)
Aaron Wiggins – OUT (adductor/thigh)
Jalen Williams – OUT (wrist)
Kenrich Williams – OUT (knee)

Dejounte Murray – OUT (achilles)
Jordan Poole – OUT (quad)
Zion Williamson – Questionable (hamstring)

Three Big Things

Trey Murphy III – Primarily used as a 3&D guy in his first 3 seasons, Murphy scored a career high 21.2 points per game last season as injuries decimated much of the Pelicans roster. This season hasn’t been too different and Murphy has had to assume of the mantle of veteran scorer on this team. Over the past 5 games, Murphy has averaged 27.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.6 steals on 55/36/93 shooting splits. The increase in usage has also increased his turnover totals. Over that same 5-game span, he’s averaging 3.8 turnovers per game, which against the Thunder, could be significant.
“Shai-stoppers” – I remember back in the rebuild days when people would often refer to Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III as the “Shai-stoppers”. I really don’t know why that moniker stuck. It was literally one bad game in the 2023-24 season, where SGA scored 20 points on 8/20 shooting from the field and 0/5 shooting from deep. That would be a “let me call home and tell Mom about this game” kind of night for most players in the NBA. Since that game, SGA went on to sweep the Pelicans later in that postseason while averaging 27 points on 48% shooting from the field. Last season, in 3 games played against the Pelicans, SGA averaged 30.3 points on 51% from the field and 42% from deep. And this season, in their last meeting, SGA went for 30 points on 57% shooting from the field. While the length of those two can give SGA fits, once he’s figured you out, it’s barbecue chicken time.
Pace – The Thunder and Pelicans are right next to each other in the bottom third of the league in relation to pace. OKC is 25th and New Orleans is 26th. But for some reason, it feels like the Thunder absolutely destroy teams that play slow. And I know the reason for New Orleans playing slow is probably because they have a rookie point guard out there and they are trying to keep the schema as vanilla as possible. But, the more you keep that ball in the halfcourt set, the more the possibility that the Thunder defense will get a deflection that could set them up for the other side of the court.