The Oklahoma City Thunder travel to Salt Lake City on Friday to take on the Utah Jazz in the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament.
For the Jazz, this is a must-win game, as they will be eliminated
from moving on to the knockout rounds with a loss. So far, the Jazz have lost both NBA Cup games they’ve played in — one at Minnesota and the other at Phoenix — while the Thunder’s lone game resulted in a win against the Kings.
Aside from NBA Cup play, the Thunder are making their case for the greatest regular season teams in NBA history. Through 16 games, OKC is 15-1 and is on track to win 76.88 games, which would break 2015-2016 Golden State’s historic mark of 73 wins in a single season.
The Jazz can still tie the Warriors’ record… if they win their next 68 games, but a loss to the Thunder on Friday would dash any hope they had.
Utah’s coming off a loss at Los Angeles where the Lakers put up 140 points in LeBron James’ season debut. That loss puts the Jazz’s record at 5-9.
This game will also be the debut of Utah’s new purple NBA Cup court. If it’s anything like the purple court in 2023-2024, it will be a little hard to look at on television, but in person? It will be a beauty to behold.
Injury Report
OKC Thunder:
Jalen Williams — OUT (wrist)
Aaron Wiggins — OUT (abductor strain)
Kenrich Williams — OUT (knee)
Thomas Sorber — OUT (ACL)
Nikola Topic — OUT (testicular surgery)
Utah Jazz:
Walker Kessler — OUT (shoulder)
Georges Niang — OUT (left foot)
Kyle Filipowski — questionable (right wrist)
How to watch Jazz vs Thunder
Where: Delta Center — Salt Lake City, Utah
When: 8 p.m. MT
Channel: KJZZ, SEG+
Radio: 97.5 FM 1280 AM
