Two of the top-performing teams in the Western Conference will meet when the Minnesota Timberwolves host the Oklahoma City Thunder in an NBA in-season tournament contest Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Minnesota has won 12 of its first 16 games to jump to the top of the conference standings. That includes a 2-1 record in West Group C of the in-season tournament. Oklahoma City has won 11 of its first 16 games to slide into second
The Philadelphia 76ers were expected to be among the top teams in the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder were expected to make a jump after earning a play-in berth last season. Saturday in Oklahoma City, the steady 76ers and surprising Thunder will face off in a matchup of two of the NBA’s top teams early. The game would be a matchup of one of the top established big men in the league — reigning NBA
Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has been experimenting with his late-game rotations. His Chicago Bulls counterpart, Billy Donovan, has been tinkering with his starting lineup to try to find the right combination to help his team get off to better starts. Daigneault’s trials have worked much better than Donovan’s so far. Wednesday night, Daigneault’s Thunder and Donovan’s Bulls meet in Oklahoma City with the teams heading in wildly different directions. The Thunder are surging,
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren have the potential to develop into one of the NBA’s top tandems. Then again, the two Oklahoma City players already are mixing pretty well just 13 games into Holmgren’s NBA career. Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren are coming off an epic outing in which they combined for 76 points. The Thunder will seek their fifth straight victory when they visit the hapless Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night. Gilgeous-Alexander recorded 40 points,
The Golden State Warriors hope the absence of Stephen Curry doesn’t lead to another long-distance disparity when they get a rematch with the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night in San Francisco. With Isaiah Joe leading a 19-for-32 assault from beyond the 3-point arc, the Thunder took a page from the injured Curry and put on a remarkable shooting display in a 128-109 triumph in the opener of a two-game, same-site sequence. Joe matched
Oklahoma City Thunder will catch the Golden State Warriors without Draymond Green and possibly without Stephen Curry when the clubs duel in an early-season rematch Thursday night in San Francisco. Green on Wednesday was suspended for five games for his aggressive role in pulling Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert away from a Klay Thompson-Jaden McDaniels scuffle early in the Timberwolves’ 104-101 win on Tuesday. Green, Thompson and McDaniels were ejected just 1:43 into the contest. The Warriors
Two of the early favorites for NBA Rookie of the Year meet when Victor Wembanyama and the visiting San Antonio Spurs face Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Both teams are looking for their first in-season tournament wins. Oklahoma City has dropped games to Sacramento and Golden State, while San Antonio lost its tournament opener to Minnesota. Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, has been fantastic, averaging 19.7
The Phoenix Suns welcome the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday for a matchup of Western Conference teams looking to rebound from losses. Phoenix slipped below .500 on the young season with a 122-119 loss on Friday to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA in-season tournament. The defeat snapped a two-game winning streak for the Suns after returning home with road victories at Detroit on Nov. 5 and in overtime Wednesday at Chicago. The
The Sacramento Kings join the NBA in-season tournament party against a team already desperate for a win in the new competition when the Oklahoma City Thunder visit the California capital on Friday night. The Thunder have won two straight, but those came after losing 141-139 at home to the Golden State Warriors in the opener of round-robin play among the five teams in West Group C of the soccer-inspired event. Thunder standout Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed
The Cleveland Cavaliers struggled during a four-game stretch without Darius Garland. Now that Garland is back after missing time with a hamstring strain, the Cavaliers are hoping to find some more consistency. The Cavs will begin a four-game road trip when they take on the host Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. “(Garland) makes the game easier for everybody,” Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell said. “That’s who he is. We’ve missed that throughout the first few games, and