OKC Thunder vs. 76ers – big positional advantage for home side

76ers projected starting lineup:

Doc Rivers is having to navigate the Ben Simmons situation and figure out how that impacts his point guard situation. Versus the Pelicans it wasn’t an issue as they trounced them 117-97. However, after leading the Nets for virtually the entire match they struggled to close out the game and fell 109-114 losing the lead for the first time with 42 seconds remaining.

Houston opened the season using the following starting five:

• Tyrese Maxey – point guard
• Seth Curry – shooting guard
• Danny Green – small forward
• Tobias Harris – power forward
• *Joel Embiid- center

76ers Injuries:

There is a ton of uncertainty surrounding who’ll dress for this game. Although *Embiid played on Friday versus the Nets he did so on a sore knee. After the loss, Embiid said he probably shouldn’t have played.

He’s a question mark for this match but so too is the Sixers back-up big Andre Drummond. If Philly doesn’t have either of them that could offer an advantage for the Thunder (although the 76ers still have enough talent to make this a competitive match).

As of posting, there are five potential 76ers who could be out for this match:

• Joel Embiid (knee) is questionable
• Andre Drummond (sore ankle) is questionable
•  Shake Milton (ankle) is questionable
• Ben Simmons (personal) is out
• Grant Riller (knee) is out indefinitely.

OKC Thunder projected starting lineup:

Through two games the one commonality for head coach Mark Daigneault is a quartet of starters. He seems to have settled on the backcourt pairing of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey along with Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley upfront. Derrick Favors started versus Utah while Isaiah Roby got the nod in Houston.

Perhaps Daigneault will platoon Favors and Roby depending on the matchup. Also of note, Aleksej Pokusevski and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl are getting extensive playing time off the bench.

OKC Thunder injuries:

Mark Daigneault has had a full roster to choose from with no players on the injured list to date. In the match versus the Rockets, he elected to give every dressed player minutes.

History:

Over the course of history, these two clubs have played on 139 occasions with the Thunder holding the advantage winning 71 times. Last year, the teams played their typical two matches with the 76ers winning both contests.

Game Specifics:

Venue: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Tip-off: the game starts at 6:00 p.m. Central Time (7:00 p.m. EST)

Where to watch the game: Bally Sports Oklahoma of NBA League Pass

Radio: WWLS 98.1 FM