The Oklahoma City Thunder will look to restart their late-December recovery when they play host to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
The Thunder were closing in Friday on a fourth consecutive victory, which would have matched their season high, when they blew a nine-point, fourth-quarter lead and dropped a 128-125 overtime decision against the visiting New Orleans Pelicans.
Oklahoma City’s run of better play actually began before the recent three-game winning streak kicked off on Dec. 17. The Thunder absorbed one-possession defeats to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat in the two games before the victories began.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to step up his game for Oklahoma City. He is averaging 32.7 points over 10 games this month, just a tick over his 31.6-point season average.
In the Friday loss to the Pelicans, Gilgeous-Alexander scored a season-high 44 points. It was his third game this season with at least 40 points, two of them coming in his past six contests.
Tuesday’s game will conclude Oklahoma City’s seven-game homestand, the longest in franchise history. The Thunder, who are 3-3 on the homestand, will head out for a game at Charlotte on Thursday, then return home for a pair of games wrapped around New Year’s Day.
The Spurs will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back after earning a 126-122 home victory against the Utah Jazz on Monday. Devin Vassell scored 24 points and Keldon Johnson added 21 for San Antonio, which led by 20 points late in the third quarter then held on late for the win.
The Spurs have won two of their past six games and are 5-4 going back to Dec. 8. San Antonio shot 55.2 percent from the field on Monday as the team continues to look much improved from a stretch in which it lost 16 of 17 games from Nov. 2-Dec. 4.
The Tuesday game will be the second of three meetings between the teams this season. The Thunder won 119-111 in Oklahoma City on Nov. 30. The sides also will square off in San Antonio on March 12.
