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Indiana Pacers vs. Thunder preview (Game 46 of 82)

Posted on January 23, 2026 by Alex Roig

Indiana Pacers (10-35, 15th in the East) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (37-8, 1st in the West)
When: Friday, 23 January 2026 at 7:00pm CST
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
TV: FDSN-OK
Offensive Rating: IND: 107.8 (30th) / OKC: 118.5 (5th)
Defensive Rating: IND: 116.0 (19th) / OKC: 105.2 (1st)
Net Rating: IND: -8.2 (28th) / OKC: 13.2 (1st)
Current Streaks: IND: 1-4 in their last 5 games / OKC: 7-1 in their last 8 games

The Set-Up

It’s amazing how quickly things can change when it comes to sports. Last couple of seasons, we’ve seen a tough bunch out of Indiana led by Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakim, and Myles Turner. That squad, surprisingly, led the Pacers all the way to the Finals last season and took the Thunder to 7 games. Unfortunately, you know the rest of the story. Haliburton tears his Achilles early in Game 7, the Thunder take control of that game in the second half, OKC wins the championship, and Turner walks in the offseason to division rival Milwaukee. What was looking to be a championship contender for the next half decade now has to go back to the drawing board. The move to get their pick back during the Finals is now one of the greatest hind-sight moves ever. With their struggles this season and a record that should allow them to get a high draft pick, the right amount of luck could get them back in the championship mix a lot sooner than later. This should also be a lesson to Thunder fans to live in the moment. A serious injury to the wrong player could throw, not just a season, but an entire run into a tailspin. Appreciate what you are seeing now instead of constantly worrying about what you can’t see (the future).

This is the 2nd and final meeting of the season between the two teams that competed in last season’s NBA Finals. OKC won a double overtime thriller very early in the season, 141-135, in a game that saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander get a career high 55 points.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -16
O/U: 226.5

Injury Report

OKC

Alex Caruso – OUT (adductor)
Isaiah Hartenstein – OUT (calf)
Ajay Mitchell – OUT (abdominal)
Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)
Nikola Topic – OUT (cancer treatment)
Aaron Wiggins – Questionable (groin)
Jalen Williams – OUT (hamstring)
Jaylin Williams – Questionable (glute/back)

IND

Tyrese Haliburton – OFS (Achilles)
Quenton Jackson – Questionable (ankle)
Bennedict Mathurin – OUT (thumb)
Obi Toppin – OUT (foot)

Three Big Things

Play Your Brand of Defense – The Indiana Pacers are one of the worst shooting teams in the league. They are last in Offensive Rating, FG%, Effective FG%, and True Shooting%. They are 29th in 3-pt FG%. They are 25th in Points In The Paint. In short, they struggle scoring the ball. They rank 5th in the league in percentage of points scored in the mid-range. This plays well into the Thunder’s defensive scheme. If the Thunder can form their defensive shell around the paint and not have to worry too much about jump shots, that usually a recipe for success for Oklahoma City.
Attack Them – The Pacers are 29th in the league in committing fouls. Their perimeter defense is surprisingly porous and center Jay Huff is their only viable rim protector. We may see a double digit free throw attempt game from SGA tonight.
Depth…or lack thereof – I’m really going to need the Thunder to stop getting injured. The depth, which is one of their biggest weapons, is taking hits left and right. And while the injuries are thankfully not of the critical variety (outside of Sorber), they are still becoming very annoying. Here’s hoping for health now and health heading into the playoffs in April.

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 7 Recap

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Alex Roig

Have you ever been away from your significant other for an extended period of time without seeing them (be it a job deployment or a self-imposed hiatus)? And then you see them again and they’ve lost 20 pounds, gotten highlights in their hair, and upped their confidence rating. And you are left wondering, “How do I act around this person?”

Well, that’s kind of how the first 18 minutes went for the Oklahoma City Thunder in this game. The Thunder had battled the Grizzlies the same for the past 6 games (the 2 bigs, Mike Conley, a streaky Courtney Lee, and an ineffective “why the hell is he still starting?” Tayshaun Prince, with Mike Miller, Beno Udrih, and Tony Allen sprinkled in between there). But the Zach Randolph suspension in Game 7 kind of flipped the script for Memphis and they came out with an entirely different line-up that threw the Thunder for a loop. Out was Prince (and, of course, Randolph), and in was Miller and Allen. The Grizzlies started small out of necessity and held their largest lead of 11 points with 40 seconds left in the 1st quarter. They finished the first quarter up by 9 at 36-27. That’ right. 36 points for the Grizzlies in a quarter.

The beginning of the 2nd quarter was more of the same, but Memphis’s depth issues started to become a problem near the middle of the 2nd quarter. After two free throws by Gasol at the 8:40 mark of the 2nd quarter, the Grizzlies missed their next 7 shots and turned the ball over twice. By the time Conley made a shot with 4:43 left, the Thunder had tied up the game at 44.

After that point, the Thunder smelled blood and kept on attacking to take a 3 point lead heading into halftime. In the third quarter, it was more of the same as the Grizzlies didn’t make their FG of the 2nd half until 6:35 remaining in the third quarter. By that point, the Thunder were up 78-65 and had all the momentum moving forward. They never let the lead get under 10 points for the rest of the game and ended up winning 120-109.

A couple thoughts on the game:

The Grizzlies were forced to play the Thunder’s style and it completely backfired on them from the middle of the 2nd quarter on. The pace was not condusive to the Grizzlies style, but it fit right in the Thunder’s wheel-house.

The pace also caused the Grizzlies’ turnovers to go up (14), which led to 31 points for the Thunder off of those turnovers.

If its a Game 7 against the Grizzlies, then Russell Westbrook must be due for a triple double (27/10/16)

After shooting 12-21 (57%) in the 1st quarter, the Grizzlies went on to shoot 25-62 (40%) for the rest of the game. Gotta love that regression.

Kevin Durant, since the headline: 69 points and 18 rebounds on 56/45/86 shooting. I’m still not giving you credit The Oklahoman.

Caron Butler only made one 3, but made 8-9 foul shots to finish with 15 points.

Reggie Jackson was great in his role – 16 points on 5-6 shooting (2-3 from 3 and 4-4 from the line). Efficiency, for the win!

It’s onto to Round 2. Oklahoma City, you can all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 7 Preview

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Alex Roig

When: Saturday, 03 May 2014 at 7:00 PM CST
Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK

Game 7. Those are the only 2 words you need to know about this game. Win or go home for both teams. Thankfully we have home court advantage. Game 6 was more what I expected to see from this team throughout this first round match-up. If Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook would have played 10% better in Games 2-5, this would’ve been a 5 game series. Instead, they struggled and allowed the Grizzlies to win three of four games that went to overtime.

Then the headline happened.

Durant doesn’t need motivation. There are some players that are self-motivated. Motivated by success. Motivated by legacy. Motivated by the hate to lose. That’s Durant. He’s been that way since day one. But sometimes, stupid headlines can piss you off to the point where it appears like motivation. If having your back against the wall wasn’t motivation enough, then this headline probably served as a accelerant, not only for Durant, but also for the entire team (coaches included).

Game 6 is more the pace that I expected to see from the team. Russell Westbrook playing a smart game, Serge Ibaka controlling the paint, Reggie Jackson giving what was needed when he was in the game, and Durant being his MVP self. More importantly, though, nothing came easy for the Grizzlies. The Thunder completely iced any pick and roll and the Grizzlies were not up to the task from the perimeter.

3 Keys to the Game

1. Adjustments – Oklahoma City made them in Game 6. The Grizzlies are being forced to make them in Game 7. The Zach Randolph suspension not only throws a wrench in the Grizzlies’ plans, but also in the Thunder’s plans. What do the Grizzlies plan to do? Will they start small with James Johnson or Mike Miller or will they remain big with either Kosta Koufos or Ed Davis? If the Grizzlies go small, expect to see Perkins’ minutes go down extensively. If the Grizzlies go big, business as usual.

2. Injured Bears – Randolph and Nick Calathes suspended. Mike Conley has a strained hamstring that he says would have kept him on the sidelines if this was a regular season game. Tony Allen is questionable because of migraines associated with an injured eye suffered in Game 6. To all of this, I say, poppycock. To me, all this information is lip service. Conley and Allen will play and will leave it all on the floor.

3. Pace – The biggest difference in Game 6 from Games 2-5, was pace. The Thunder pushed the ball and had the Grizzlies on skates all night. We’ll probably see a lot more small ball from the Grizzlies in this gam due to the Randolph suspension. But, it won’t be new to the Grizzlies. The dirty secret about the Randolph suspension is that the Grizzlies rarely played with Z-Bo in the 4th quarters of games. Gasol is a better big to have in small ball line-ups and it showed many times late in games in this series.

Just A Game

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Alex Roig

Its funny how life sometimes put things into perspective. A dear friend of mines passed away on Wednesday. Someone that I can proudly say was like a 3^rd grandfather to my kids. His wife was my kids’ main caregiver before they started school. And while this gentleman was at work most of the time his wife was running the home daycare, there were those days where he was home from work and would help out with the daily chores of running a home daycare. The kids even had their own nickname for him, just like a regular grandfather. Not only that, but his daughter and my wife were best friends in junior high and high school. In addition, he was also one of my co-workers for about 2 years. Needless to say, there was a bit of history between our family and theirs.

So when the Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the lowly Washington Wizards, it didn’t quite register as large a blip as it normally would have on my radar screen. I was still disappointed, don’t get me wrong. Title contenders aren’t supposed to be losing to teams that have a great shot at obtaining the No. 1 pick in the next draft. But at the moment, in that time, a loss to the team with the league’s worst record wasn’t really that important.

Honestly, in the context of an entire season, one loss isn’t really that important if you are either an elite team or a bottom of the barrel team. Barring injuries, I don’t think we will be struggling to hold our post as a home court advantage team in the Western Conference. History is sprinkled with examples of eventual champs getting surprised by that one go-getter team that is galvanized by their home crowd into playing out of their minds and winning that one crazy game. I call it the “Loser’s Game 7” effect. Washington will only have a couple of these games this season: OKC, Miami on February 10^th and April 26^th, Chicago on January 30^th, the Lakers on March 7^th, and the Clippers on February 4^th. Bad teams don’t get hyped to play other bad teams. The Milwaukee Bucks don’t have their visit to New Orleans circled on any game schedule. Bad teams love being the hunters, if only for that one game.

The Thunder just happened to fall into the lions den on the wrong night. They started off good, but you could tell from the beginning they were playing a bit too loose with the ball. You give any team enough opportunities, and they’ll eventually start to cash in on those. And that’s what the Wizards did. They eventually started to feel good about themselves and started hitting shots, contested and open. They started to look like the team their fans imagined them to be. And for that one night, everything fell into place. The questionable blocking call was called a charge. The FT’s started falling. Hell, the 3 pointers started falling. In the end, the Wiz got one of their biggest wins of the entire season.

And it still doesn’t worry me that much. We are still a young team that is prone to hiccups at times, especially against lesser competition. We still had an opportunity at the end of the game to either tie it or win it outright. I just hope this serves as a lesson to the Thunder. When you are the hunted, you are usually getting the best from each team for the full 48 minutes. That’s something that still may be new to this young Thunder team. Elite teams lose sometimes, no matter who the other team is. The difference, is that they take each loss and use it as a lesson to be learned. And that’s what I’m sure Scott Brooks is doing right now.

As for me, I still did manage to watch the game last night on DVR. In the midst of pain, basketball is my refuge. Always has been. So with that said, I bid adieu to my friend, Hector Carreras. A good father, husband, soldier, pseudo-grandfather to my kids, and human being. An avid ping pong player, I guess the angel that used to play against God wasn’t cutting it anymore. So God had to call in his replacement. Rest In Peace, dear friend.