Thunder at Knicks
The Oklahoma City Thunder aren't playing their best basketball of late but managed to avoid a three-game slide with a 114-107 triumph at Detroit on Wednesday. The Thunder will try to clinch a winning three-game trip when they visit the New York Knicks on Friday.
Oklahoma City suffered blow out losses to a pair of title contenders at Milwaukee and home against the Los Angeles Clippers and squandered a 16-point lead against the Pistons but recovered late and ended up shooting a season-best 61.3 percent from the floor. "It was great because that's the way we have to play," Thunder coach Billy Donovan told reporters of the team's shooting performance. "I think when you're playing against an elite defensive team, for our team, we've got to get the ball ahead of the defense. The way you do that is by moving it, cutting it, and being sharp and crisp and not being able to get pinned on one side. I thought our pace and tempo was good." New York is hosting its third consecutive playoff contender from the Western Conference and had mixed results with the first two, pulling off a stunning win over Houston on Monday before dropping a 112-104 decision to Utah on Wednesday. The Knicks fell to 1-1 under new team president Leon Rose with the setback.
TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: FS Oklahoma, MSG
ABOUT THE THUNDER (38-24): Leading the charge for Oklahoma City on Wednesday was guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored a team-best 27 points while going 12-of-15 from the floor. "He was really, really efficient, made some really good plays around the basket, got inside the teeth of the defense, got to the paint. He was really crafty in terms of getting in there," Donovan told reporters of Gilgeous-Alexander. "I thought he made really good decisions of when to drive, when to pull up and when to take it all the way to the basket." The Thunder sit in sixth place in the Western Conference entering play on Thursday, two games behind the fourth-place Houston Rockets and a half-game clear of the seventh-place Dallas Mavericks.
ABOUT THE KNICKS (19-43): New York is not without talent and got a big game on Wednesday from power forward Julius Randle, who collected 32 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes. "We tried, I feel like we played extremely hard," Randle told reporters. "They're just a really good team." The double-double marked the fourth straight for Randle, who is averaging 19.4 points and 9.8 rebounds - both team bests - and is in the first of a three-year contract with the Knicks.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thunder PG Dennis Schroder averaged 23.5 points over the last two games after being held to nine points in the 133-86 loss at Milwaukee last Friday.
2. Knicks C Mitchell Robinson (hamstring) sat out Wednesday and is day-to-day.
3. Oklahoma City took both meetings last season, including a 127-109 triumph at New York.