Chicago Bulls vs. Thunder preview (Game 74 of 82)

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Alex Roig

Chicago Bulls (29-43, 12th in the East) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (57-16, 1st in the West)
When: Friday, 27 March 2026 at 7:00pm CST
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
TV: NBATV / FDSN-OK
Offensive Rating: CHI: 112.6 (24th) / OKC: 117.1 (8th)
Defensive Rating: CHI: 117.1 (23rd) / OKC: 106.2 (1st)
Net Rating: CHI: -4.5 (23rd) / OKC: 10.8 (1st)
Current Streaks: CHI: 3-5 in their last 8 games / OKC: Lost their last game, winners of 12 of their last 13
OKC Magic Number Count – 8, to clinch the #1 seed throughout the playoffs

The Tip-Off

Here lately, it has felt like the Thunder are playing every game on Friday the 13th and the San Antonio Spurs are Jason Voorhees. And no matter how fast the Thunder run, the Spurs are right there continually nipping at their heels. (Cha-cha-cha) Win 12 in a row…the Spurs go 11-1 in that same stretch. Look at the strength of schedule for their remaining games, and the 2 game lead the Thunder hold over the Spurs constantly feels like its only a step away. But is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. The Thunder weren’t really tested last season until the 2nd round of the playoffs, which may have played a part in their inexperience during certain situations in the playoffs. Having to be battle-tested in the regular season could show it’s worth in the playoffs this season. While the Thunder did eventually win the title, there are some players on the roster this season that didn’t necessarily play a big part in the rotation last year (namely Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain). In addition, it also puts the onus on the Spurs to have to continue playing all the way through the end of the season, which limits their ability to rest their players.

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the Thunder and Bulls. OKC won the first meeting, 116-108, in a game that saw five Thunder players score at least 17 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was out for that game and the leading scorer for OKC was Jared McCain off the bench with 20 points.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -18.5
O/U: 238.5

Injury Report

OKC

Brooks Barnhizer – OUT (personal)
Chet Holmgren – OUT (hip contusion)
Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)

CHI

Zach Collins – OFS (toe)
Rob Dillingham – Probable (knee)
Noa Essengue – OFS (shoulder)
Jaden Ivey – OFS (knee)
Yuki Kawamura – Day to Day (quad)
Isaac Okoro – Probable (knee)
Nick Richards – Questionable (elbow)
Anfernee Simons – OUT (wrist)
Jalen Smith – OFS (calf)
Guerschon Yabusele – Questionable (ankle)

Three Big Things

Take Care of Business – The Thunder are at home after a long road trip and playing a team that has no business competing with them. In addition, they are the healthiest they’ve been all year. With the Spurs nipping at their heels, there should be no reason why the Thunder don’t do the necessary things to put this team away quickly and early in the game.
Perimeter Defense – The Chicago Bulls score 37.7% of their points from the 3-point line. That’s 6th best in the league. They were just scorched by the #3 team in that statistical category in their last game against Boston. While the Thunder’s defensive philosophy has worked for the most part of the past couple of seasons, there are still nights where their inside-out principle works against them. It would behoove the Thunder to not let ball-handlers into the lane and to run out to the 3-point shooters for Chicago.
Downhill Scoring – The Bulls rank 4th worst in the league in paint defense, allowing 53.4 points per game. With Zach Collins and Jalen Smith out for the season and Nick Richards questionable, it would behoove the Thunder to constantly attack the paint and run their offense through their paint touches tonight.

Thunder @ San Antonio Spurs preview (Game 44 of 82)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Alex Roig

Oklahoma City Thunder (30-13, 1st in the West) @ San Antonio Spurs (8-35, 15th in the West)
When: Wednesday, 24 January 2024 at 8:30pm CST
Where: Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX
Offensive Rating – SAS: 109.3 (28th) / OKC: 119.6 (6th)
Defensive Rating – SAS: 118.2 (25th) / OKC: 111.6 (5th)
Net Rating – SAS: -8.8 (26th) / OKC: 8.0 (3rd)

The Set-Up

Now comes the hard part. It’s easy to be the hunter. It’s the position most teams in the league are. But when you are at the top, you become the hunted. And that’s an entirely different set of circumstances. In a perfect world, every team would be receiving another team’s best shot in every game. But we know motivation can be a hell of a weapon. Just look at last night’s game. The Thunder needed a last second game winner (and some controversy) to come away with a 2-point victory against a team OKC had beat the previous two times they’ve played by a combined 105 points. Now when teams look at OKC, they’ll see a metaphorical crown to snatch.

This is the second of four meetings this season between these two teams. The Thunder won the first game convincingly, 123-87, in Oklahoma City, in mid-November.

Betting Info

Line: OKC -7.5
O/U: 242.5

Injury Report

OKC

Olivier Sarr (hip) – Day to Day

SAS

Charles Bassey (knee) – OUT
Sidy Cissoko (ankle) – OUT
Tre Jones (ankle) – Questionable

Three Big Things

Mental focus – There were times in the game against the Trailblazers where the Thunder weren’t necessarily playing like themselves. Going for steals which then set the back line defenders up for failure. Taking inefficient shots. Turning the ball over. It was classic “we’re better than this team and we know we can coast and still win”. And they did. It felt very 2015-2019’ish, when the Thunder would consistently play down to their opponents and need a monster comeback to win the game.
The Chet vs. Wemby match-up we’ve been waiting for – The previous match-up between these two was a bit disappointing. Not necessarily disappointing because of the individual players. But disappointing because they hardly ever matched up against each other throughout the evening. San Antonio usually deploys Zach Collins to tackle the opposing center, while the Thunder look for match ups that keep Chet closest to the rim. Luckily for us, the Spurs have recently been using starting line-ups that feature only Wembanyama as the center.
Pace Race – These two teams love to push the ball up the floor. They are top-7 in the league in both pace and fast-break points. Should make for a fun game for the national TV audience.

First Round Preview: Thunder vs. Trailblazers

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Alex Roig

thunder blazers

What have you done for me lately? If you are the Oklahoma City Thunder, you should go confidently into your first round match-up with the Portland Trailblazers. The Thunder just finished a regular season in which they swept the season series against division rival Portland, 4-0. But just as the slogan says about the postseason: it’s a new season.

The Portland team the Thunder will face in the playoffs will not be the same Portland team they faced in the regular season. The season-ending injury to Jusuf Nurkic late in the season wipes away a source of familiarity the Thunder are used to seeing from Portland. The entire dynamic of this series changed the minute Nurkic went down in the 73rd game of the season. Logic would have you think this benefits Oklahoma City. But in a weird way, that dynamic may be slanted more towards Portland.

The Thunder swept the season series against Portland in part because they matched up so well with them. Russell Westbrook can play Damian Lillard to, at worst, a draw. CJ McCollum has a bit of a feast or famine thing going when he faces the Thunder. And Nurkic is one of the few centers in the league that plays similar to Steven Adams. Continue reading →

Thunder Draft Options: Movin’ On Up

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Alex Roig

Mark Dolejs – USA Today

The Oklahoma City Thunder own the 21st pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. There is certainly a possibility the Thunder stick with the pick and take a player at 21. But the Thunder have been known to do some shuffling in order to move up in the draft. Of the nine drafts the Thunder have been involved in (to include the 2008 draft, in which they were known as the Seattle Supersonics due to the fact the team hadn’t officially moved to Oklahoma City yet), they have moved up in the first round in four of them.

Here’s a quick summary of the Thunder’s history of moving up in the first round. A quick note: The idea of moving up doesn’t necessarily mean the Thunder change their draft position. If the Thunder starts the draft at 25 and then ends up with the 11th pick, that just means that the team picking 11th drafted the player OKC wanted in exchange for something else. Continue reading →