Chris Paul will face his former team this Thursday before meeting another of his old teams in the playoffs, as the Oklahoma City Thunder look to finish the seeding games with a victory against the LA Clippers, who have the No. 2 seed in the West locked. Check out our preview of this game below.
Mike Muscala drilled a late 3-pointer on Wednesday to lift up the Thunder to a 116-115 come-from-behind victory against the Miami Heat. That shot would not have mattered without the brilliance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the team with 18 points. Chris Paul, meanwhile, scored 12 points to go with four assists and seven rebounds. Steven Adams also returned after missing the previous three games due to a left leg injury and scored eight points, grabbed eight rebounds, and got a steal in 20 minutes of action. Those are not impressive numbers but the Thunder must be happy to see Adams healthy and contributing in limited minutes. Gilgeous-Alexander was fantastic in the Thunder’s 118-112 home win over the Clippers last December, pumping out 32 points on 12-of-25 shooting. Dennis Schroder also came off the bench and exploded for 28 points with four 3-pointers.
The Thunder are 6-4 against the spread in their last 10 games.
Lou Williams is heating up. That’s good news for the Clippers, who defeated the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, 124-111. Williams, who missed the first two Clippers games in the Bubble then scored for only 13 points in his first two games there, has averaged 17.6 points over his last three games. Against the Nuggets, Williams made it rain with 23 points to go with seven assists in just 25 minutes of action. Paul George scored 27 points for the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard chipped in 26 points more. The Clippers are averaging 119.1 points in Orlando on 48.9 percent shooting from the field — second-best among all teams in the Bubble. It won’t be a surprise if George and Leonard will be held out for the Oklahoma City game, but having Williams out there makes LA still a dangerous team to deal with in an otherwise meaningless contest.
The Clippers are 3-1 against the spread in their last four games.
