Oklahoma City Thunder (5-5) vs. San Antonio Spurs (9-3)
Tip Off: 7:00pm CST
How To Watch: FSOK
Overview:
For both teams, they are entering Wednesday night on their second game of a back-to-back. For the Lakers they prevailed in their first game 117-100 vs. the Rockets whilst the Thunder crumbled 112-102 to the Spurs.
Game Notes:
The Thunder have two players listed as out for tonight:
Ty Jerome (ankle)
Al Horford (rest)
The Lakers will have one player out for tonight:
Wesley Matthews
Who to Watch
Isaiah Roby
Roby will be thrown into the lions den yet again as Horford sits out for resting purposes. He dropped a cool 19 points and 7 rebounds in his first career start vs. the Magic, but the Lakers are a different animal.
Montrezl Harrell will likely be the guy Roby is tasked with in this game and Harrell grueling effort and strength down low will make him hard for Roby to handle.
Though Roby’s high pick and rolls always seem to be trusty Harrell’s speed and athleticism allow him to cover much more ground than the guys Roby is used to.
Aleksej Pokusevski
Pokusevski has not connected all the dots in his first stretch of games in the NBA, but you have to imagine it is only a matter of time for the 19-year-old big.
For Pokusevski, it does not matter what the stat sheet reads by the end of the night, in fact it’s very likely it will not look pretty, but it is all about opportunity with Poku. You can bet that it is very likely Mark Daigneault will be calling on just about everyone in the second half of this game, and I expect Poku to be one who remains on the floor the majority of the second half.
He has had mishaps in every game this season, but his most polished performance came in Tuesday’s game vs. the Spurs, as he was making correct read after correct read on both ends of the ball.
Expect this game to be a teaching moment for the 7-footer as he will likely spend some time matched up on seasoned veterans in Markieff Morris and Montrezl Harrell in tonights game, and heck maybe even Lebron!
Lu Dort
Dort has begun the season with guns blazing with averages of 12 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 28 minutes a contest. The most polarizing development in Dort’s game has come from the three point arch, as he is currently shooting 44% off near 5 attempts per game.
Dort’s offense is always a point of note when accessing the outcome of games, but as the saying goes, defense comes first. Dort will have the toughest standoff of the year and potentially his career, going toe-to-toe with one of the greatest of all time in Lebron James.
If Dort is able to fend off Lebron James from getting himself inside or creating good looks for others, extra attention can be provided to other areas of the game, such as stopping Harrell and Davis down low.
Honorable Mention: Darius Bazley (see how he matches with AD)