OKC Thunder vs. Clippers: Series Outlook

Oklahoma City hosts the Los Angeles Clippers in the series opener on Thursday night.

The Thunder and the Clippers are set to go head-to-head Thursday evening, where they’ll meet for their first time on the season. 

With a healthy Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, as well with their introductory piece in James Harden since November, the Clippers are slowly coming into form in the Western Conference riding a 8-game winning streak.

With the Leonard-George duo playing arguably their best basketball since their arrival to Los Angeles, the Thunder are also consistently progressing as one of the youngest teams in the league to sit among the top teams in the West thus far — with wins to back it. 

Oklahoma City enters Thursday night off two character-building victories. 

One, a one-point win from a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander game-winner against the Denver Nuggets — and the other, a 19-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies two nights later. 

Holding a 5-2 record in December at 17-8 overall, Gilgeous-Alexander imposing his top level skill set and Chet Holmgren truly coming into form, the Thunder are certainly a team to beat in the west when healthy. 

But Oklahoma City hasn’t quite seen this version of the Leonard-led Clippers — making it a much harder matchup for the Thunder than in recent past.

Since the 2021-22 season, Oklahoma City has seen George just three times in seven contests — and Leonard only two times. 

Playing a watered-down version of Los Angeles in the midst of a rebuild has boded decently for the Thunder, going 4-3 against the Clippers in previous two seasons.

Since that short amount of time, each team has transformed in their own respective ways.

One, more of restoring health and adding a talented yet experimental piece. The other, building longevity and depth through a selfless young core.

And throughout this year, it’ll be a series to keep an eye on in the Western Conference as two teams who’ll seemingly be right in the mix. 

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