Thunder attempt to regain momentum against Spurs

The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder will look to restart their late-December restoration after they play host to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

The Thunder have been closing in Friday on a fourth consecutive victory, which might have matched their season excessive, after they blew a nine-point, fourth-quarter lead and dropped a 128-125 additional time determination towards the visiting New Orleans Pelicans.

Oklahoma Metropolis’s run of higher play truly started earlier than the current three-game profitable streak kicked off on Dec. 17. The Thunder absorbed one-possession defeats to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Warmth within the two video games earlier than the victories started.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to step up his sport for Oklahoma Metropolis. He’s averaging 32.7 factors over 10 video games this month, only a tick over his 31.6-point season common.

Within the Friday loss to the Pelicans, Gilgeous-Alexander scored a season-high 44 factors. It was his third sport this season with at the least 40 factors, two of them coming in his previous six contests.

“We did an ideal job of placing ourselves in place there,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault stated. “We have been down. The primary half we have been simply actually out of rhythm and never numerous power. We got here out of halftime and it didn’t flip straight away, however we form of hung in there and caught with it.

“We received a pleasant run to complete the third (quarter) and did a pleasant job within the fourth to get management of the sport. They simply out-executed us late within the fourth quarter on each ends of the ground.”

Tuesday’s sport will conclude Oklahoma Metropolis’s seven-game homestand, the longest in franchise historical past. The Thunder, who’re 3-3 on the homestand, will head out for a sport at Charlotte on Thursday, then return house for a pair of video games wrapped round New 12 months’s Day.

The Spurs can be enjoying on the second evening of a back-to-back after incomes a 126-122 house victory towards the Utah Jazz on Monday. Devin Vassell scored 24 factors and Keldon Johnson added 21 for San Antonio, which led by 20 factors late within the third quarter then held on late for the win.

The Spurs have gained two of their previous six video games and are 5-4 going again to Dec. 8. San Antonio shot 55.2 % from the sector on Monday because the staff continues to look a lot improved from a stretch wherein it misplaced 16 of 17 video games from Nov. 2-Dec. 4.

“We’re nonetheless a younger group, however we now have good gamers, younger guys who need to pay attention and get higher,” the Spurs’ Josh Richardson stated, based on the San Antonio Specific-Information. “Hopefully, certainly one of nowadays it actually begins kicking in.

“I believe it simply takes us stringing collectively a few video games the place we do play that full 48 (minutes) to see what it seems to be like, to see how laborious you need to play the entire sport. Then, hopefully it turns into the usual.”

The Tuesday sport would be the second of three conferences between the groups this season. The Thunder gained 119-111 in Oklahoma Metropolis on Nov. 30. The perimeters additionally will sq. off in San Antonio on March 12.

–Area Stage Media

Try our sports section for the newest information and evaluation. Look after a wager? Head to our sports betting section for information and odds.