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2024-25 NBA Regular Season
Miami Heat v Oklahoma City Thunder
Kaseya Center
Miami, Florida
Saturday 21 December 2024
Tip-off at 01:00
Oklahoma City Thunder will be keen to keep the momentum going when they face Miami Heat at the Kaseya Center on the morning of Saturday, December 21.
The Thunder have the third-best record in the
NBA this season (20-5) and they lead the Western Conference ahead of Memphis Grizzlies, who are three games back in second place.
Mark Daigneault's team have won nine of their last 10 games and they beat Houston Rockets 111-96 on December 15 to book a NBA Cup final date with Milwaukee Bucks.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 32 points against the Rockets, 20 of which came in the second half as Oklahoma City overturned a 42-41 deficit at the break to come out on top.
"I thought in the first half we were kind of tiptoeing with the ball, and you really can't do that against that team and expect to crack them, and then in the second half we had more force," Daigneault said.
"I thought our mentality against their physicality in the second half was much better, and it left a lot to be desired in the first half."
The Heat occupy the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, although they opened the door for the Atlanta Hawks after suffering a 125-124 defeat to Detroit Pistons in overtime on December 17.
The narrow loss to the Pistons halted a four-game winning streak for Erik Spoelstra's team and they have a few days to plan for Oklahoma City, who are in action against the Bucks on December 18.
Jimmy Butler posted a game-high 35 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists against Detroit, but it was not enough despite Miami closing out the fourth quarter with an 18-2 run, having earlier trailed by 19 points in the second half.
"It's a shame, we've had two games where we've had incredible comebacks and both times come up short. The lesson would be not to get down 19 and play with that kind of desperation throughout the course of a game," Spoelstra said.
"There were times that we did and then times that we didn't. I mean this was not going to be a game that we were going to score 130 where it was going to be easy and it felt like early on we were trying to see if we could just get our offense going and then they got into a great flow in the first half and we weren't able to overcome that."
Miami Heat v Oklahoma City Thunder - Head-to-head, Regular Season
Games played: 72
Heat wins: 30
Thunder wins: 42
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