What to Watch For in OKC Thunder vs. Los Angeles Lakers

The Oklahoma City Thunder are once again facing a second leg of a back to back to cap off a three game in four night stretch. This time, at home, the Thunder welcome in the Los Angeles Lakers to the Paycom Center as the LaLa Land foes are tipping off a road trip.

After a dominating second quarter gained the margin needed to fight off the Golden State Warriors and improve to 11-1, the Thunder have to regroup for a daunting task ahead against the Los Angeles Lakers. While the Purple and Gold are without the legendary LeBron James, they remain healthy out side of his injury diagnoised before the regular season.

The Thunder will not submit an injury report until later this afternoon as is protocol on the second leg of a back-to-back set. However, the Bricktown Ballers still await the season debut of All-NBA swing man Jalen Williams, Veteran big man Kenrich Williams and Rookie Nikola Topic. With this game tipping off in short order of last night's victory, monitor the likes of Chet Holmgren as the rising star has dealt with lower back soreness all season. Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins each missed Tuesday's tilt with lingering injuries and tonight would be a big one to be down the all-defensive guard and bench bucket getter.

Oklahoma City and Los Angeles played a pair of games last March that sent shock waves through the NBA as the two sides split a baseball style series, thinking we'd see it again in a few short weeks. That was before the Lakers were ousted in round one and the Thunder went on to win the NBA Championship.

Now, the Lakers are seeking a statement win to confirm their contender status.

What to Watch For

The Oklahoma City Thunder are going to face a tough task battling Luka Doncic in this one no matter who is in or out, but the possibility of missing two All-Defensive weapons in Dort and the Santa Clara lottery pick make this challenge even more daunting. While OKC historically finds success swarming Doncic in the paint to limit his pure scoring ability, the generational guard is able to dazzle as a dime dropper and gift his teammates clean looks from the corner beyond the arc as a result of his gravity. Watch for the shot variants from 3-point land in this contest as it very well could decide the game.

If Oklahoma City is down Holmgren on the second night of a back-to-back, all of a sudden, their front-court depth has dwindled. If Doncic or Austin Reaves and DeAndre Ayton are partnered up in non-Hartenstein minutes, the pick-and-roll could be a big factor for Los Angeles.

While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did get to rest another fourth quarter on Tuesday in the Thunder's blowout win of the Warriors, he is still shouldering a massive offensive load without his co-star bucket getter. Can he put up jaw-dropping numbers to get this win?

Will the OKC Thunder find success from 3-point land with the trio of Isaiah Joe, Cason Wallace and Jaylin Williams needing to provide a hot night from downtown is another storyline to watch.

Game Information

Date: Nov. 12
Matchup: OKC Thunder (11-1) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (8-3)
Time: 08:30 PM CT
Location: Paycom Center –– Oklahoma City, OK
TV: ESPN
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM)

Up next, the Oklahoma City Thunder sees their schedule finally give way to rest. After playing a league high in games to this point, the Bricktown Ballers get a couple off days on Thursday and Friday before starting a stretch of just four games in seven days, all of them coming against current sub-.500 squads but with three of the four on the road.