Who’s Playing
Los Angeles Clippers @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Current Records: Los Angeles 19-14, Oklahoma City 27-5
How To Watch
When: Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 8 p.m. ET
Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 8 p.m. ET Where: Paycom Center — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Paycom Center — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma TV: Fan Duel SN – Oklahoma
Fan Duel SN – Oklahoma Follow: CBS Sports App
CBS Sports App Online Streaming: Catch select NBA matches on Fubo (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
Catch select NBA matches on Fubo (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.) Ticket Cost: $19.60
What to Know
Clippers fans better hope the squad plays one heck of a game on Thursday as the odds are decidedly against them. Their road trip will continue as they head out to face the Oklahoma City Thunder at 8:00 p.m. ET at Paycom Center. Both have allowed few points on average, (the Clippers: 107.8, the Thunder: 103.3) so any points scored will be well earned.
The Clippers are headed into this one after the oddsmakers set last week’s over/under low at 218.5, but even that wound up being too high. It’s going to take some time for them to recover from the 122-86 bruising that the Spurs dished out on Tuesday. Los Angeles was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 63-43.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, the Clippers struggled to work together and finished the game with only 17 assists. They were demolished by their opponents in that department as the Spurs posted 37.
Meanwhile, the Thunder had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12.2 points) and they went ahead and made it seven on Tuesday. They came out on top against Minnesota by a score of 113-105. Oklahoma City was down 42-30 with 5:52 left in the second quarter but they still came back for the handy eight-point win.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 15 for 23 en route to 40 points plus two steals.
With the loss, Los Angeles broke their three-game winning streak and moved their record to 19-14. As for Oklahoma City, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they’ve won 16 of their last 17 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 27-5 record this season.
The Clippers came up short against the Thunder in their previous matchup back in November of 2024, falling 134-128. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Gilgeous-Alexander, who almost dropped a double-double on 45 points and nine assists. Back with a vengeance, will the Clippers be able to stop him this time around? There’s only one way to find out.
Odds
Oklahoma City is a big 9.5-point favorite against Los Angeles, according to the latest NBA odds.
The oddsmakers were right in line with the betting community on this one, as the game opened as a 9.5-point spread, and stayed right there.
The over/under is 217.5 points.
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Series History
Oklahoma City has won 7 out of their last 10 games against Los Angeles.