Tag Archives: Darius Garland

Thunder @ Los Angeles Clippers preview (Game 80 of 82)

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  • Oklahoma City Thunder (63-16, 1st in the West) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (41-38, 8th in the West)
  • When: Wednesday, 08 April 2026 at 9:00pm CST
  • Where: Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA
  • TV: FDSN-OK
  • Offensive Rating: LAC: 116.5 (11th) / OKC: 117.8 (7th)
  • Defensive Rating: LAC: 114.9 (17th) / OKC: 105.8 (1st)
  • Net Rating: LAC: 1.6 (14th) / OKC: 11.9 (1st)
  • Current Streaks: LAC: Winners of their last 2 and 5 of their last 7 previous to that / OKC: Winners of 6 in a row
  • Magic Number (to clinch the No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs): 1

The Tip-Off

There’s a narrative out there that the regular season doesn’t matter. But for the Thunder, this is what you work so hard in the regular season for. The Thunder don’t win the title last season if they don’t play two Game 7’s in the friendly confines of the Paycom Center. Securing home court advantage throughout the playoffs is of the utmost importance for a team that, for all intents and purposes, is still extremely young. This team has never experienced a Game 7 on the road. Getting that first game and the possibility of that 7th game of the series in Oklahoma City has to have such a calming effect on a team like OKC.

This is the third and final regular season meeting between the Thunder and Clippers. The Thunder have won the first two games by an average of 20 points.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

  • Line: OKC -7
  • O/U: 227.5

Injury Report

OKC

  • Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)

LAC

  • Bradley Beal – OFS (hip)
  • Darius Garland – OUT (toe)
  • Isaiah Jackson – OUT (ankle)
  • Yanic Konan Niederhauser – OFS (foot)

Three Big Things

  1. Rebounding – There aren’t many nights where the Thunder can come into the game and expect rebounding superiority. The Clippers rank 29th in offensive rebounding, 24th in defensive rebounding, and 29 in total rebounding per game. But there may be a reason why their rebounding numbers are so low…
  2. Perimeter Defense – The Clippers are one of those weird teams that are highly efficient in terms of shot-making, but rank near the bottom in shot attempts. They are 3rd in FG% at 50% per game, but rank last in FG attempts per game. It’s very similar from deep. They rank 7th in 3pt FG%, but rank 23rd in 3pt FG attempts per game. And it’s not like they are dominating in the paint, as they rank 17th in points in the paint per game. So what is the reason why the Clippers shoot so few attempts?
  3. Pace – The reason they don’t shoot many attempts is because they are one of the slowest teams in the league in terms of pace. They rank 28th in Pace over the entire season and 22nd since the All-Star Break. I differentiated the two because it is expected with older stars like Kawhi Leonard, Ivica Zubac, and James Harden, that the pace would be slower. But the pace hasn’t increased that much since they picked up Darius Garland and Benedict Mathurin during the trade deadline. If the Thunder can turn the Clippers over and play in transition, it would be more in line with the OKC’s style of play than LA’s.

 

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Thunder preview (Game 8 of 82)

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  • Cleveland Cavaliers (3-4) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (4-3)
  • When: Wednesday, 08 November 2023 at 7:00pm CST
  • Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  • Offensive Rating – CLE: 107.0 (27th) / OKC: 114.0 (11th)
  • Defensive Rating – CLE: 109.9 (11th) / OKC: 113.6 (20th)
  • Net Rating – CLE: -2.9 (18th) / OKC: 0.4 (15th)

The Set-Up

The NBA is crazy sometimes. You could play a team twice in a span of two weeks and see a completely different team on the floor each time you play them. On October 27th, the Thunder played a Cavs team in Cleveland that was missing both Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen. Oklahoma City had to launch an amazing comeback in the last 2 minutes of that game to overcome a 10-point deficit in what was probably their most exciting game of the year.

Conventional wisdom would tell you the Cavs probably stand a better chance today because of the addition of the two starters that were injured in the previous game. But, Cleveland has weirdly not played well this season on the offensive end. They are 27th in offensive rating and have a negative net rating. The twin tower experiment seems to be languishing a bit and spacing for the guard duo of Donovan Mitchell and Garland is severely lacking. That could be something or it could be nothing. Seven games is an extremely small sample size and the Cavs rode this same line-up last season to a 51-31 record. OKC is also getting over an injury bug and may be a little different than the team Cleveland faced with the addition of Jaylin Williams to the rotation.

Injury Report

OKC

  • Ousmane Dieng (wrist) – Questionable
  • Luguentz Dort (hip) – Questionable
  • Kenrich Williams (back) – Out

CLE

  • Ty Jerome (ankle) – Out
  • Sam Merrill (illness) – Out
  • Isaac Okoro (knee) – Out
  • Ricky Rubio (personal) – Out

Three Big Things

  1. Rebounding and the size problem – In the previous game against Cleveland, Evan Mobley and Chet Holmgren essentially negated each other because of their similar size and positionality. But with the addition of Jarrett Allen to the line-up, the Thunder may find themselves staring up at another behemoth in the paint. I love Jalen Williams at the 4, but these are the nights where the height disparity could rear it’s ugly head on the boards. It’ll be interesting to see if coach Daigneault plays bigger line-ups involving Holmgren and Jaylin (J-Will) Williams.
  2. Giddey redemption game – With Isaac Okoro likely being out with a knee injury, there may be a mismatch on the floor for Josh Giddey to take advantage of. He struggled in the previous game against the Hawks, as he never found his rhythm and missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. He was visibly frustrated throughout the night, especially with how great he performed in the 4th quarter of the Warriors game. I could see him taking either of Cleveland’s smaller guards into the post or driving by someone like Max Strus.
  3. The immovable object vs. the unstoppable force – Cleveland’s defense has been great this season. They are 11th in defensive rating and first in scoring. The Thunder have been pretty good on offense this season. They are 11th in offensive rating, first in free throw percentage, 6th in 3pt percentage, and 5th in FG percentage. Cleveland is 20th in pace, while the Thunder are 5th. Whoever exerts their will on their end of the floor will likely win this game.