Free Daily NCAAF Lock Pick, Tuesday October 24th: Liberty vs Western Kentucky 7:30pmET
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A pair of teams that reached the play-in tournament in their respective conferences only to fall short of the actual playoff field open their 2023-24 regular season with a tilt against each other in the Windy City. The Oklahoma City Thunder are on the road as they travel to face the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night. Oklahoma City finished last season 40-42 and finished 10th in the Western Conference: they beat New Orleans in the 9/10 game of the play-in tournament but fell 120-95 to Minnesota with the 8th seed at stake. Chicago found itself in a similar situation, only in the Eastern Conference, as they finished 40-42 and 10th in the conference standings. The Bulls beat the Raptors 109-105 in the 9/10 play-in game before losing 102-91 to Miami to end their season. In the all-time regular season series between the teams, the Thunder owns a narrow 78-77 advantage and took both ma tchups last season. That includes a 124-110 road win in the most recent meeting on January 13, 2023.
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Oklahoma City finished just below the .500 mark last season at 40-42 and fell just short of the actual playoff field as they lost to Minnesota with the eighth seed in the West at stake in the play-in tournament. The Thunder are staying with relatively the same group as they had a season ago as there weren’t any big moves in free agency, coming or going. Oklahoma City lost Dario Saric (free agency, Warriors), Jared Butler (free agency, Wizards) and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (trade, Houston, then released) from last season’s squad. The Thunder didn’t make many moves bringing people in as they re-signed Lindy Waters III and Olivier Sarr while acquiring Davis Bertans in a deal with the Mavericks. Oklahoma City had three picks in the draft, adding Cason Wallace from Kentucky with the 10th overall pick, Keyontae Johnson from Kansas State with the 50th overall selection and Vasileje Micic with the 52nd< /sup> overall pick from Serbia.
Last season, the Thunder were 5th in the league in scoring offense as they averaged 117.5 points per game on the year. Oklahoma City was 14th in rebounding with 43.6 boards per contest while they were 21st in assists with 24.4 dimes a night. The Thunder were 19th in the league in scoring defense as they allowed an average of 116.4 points a night. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the team with 31.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists per contest last season. He’ll run the point while Josh Giddey (16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists), Luguentz Dort (13.7 points, 4.6 rebounds), Jalen Williams (14.1 points, 4.5 rebounds) and last year’s second overall pick, Chet Holmgren, round out the starting five. Holmgren will be making his NBA debut after missing last season with a Lisfranc injury he suffered during a pro-am event in the summer of 2022. Cason Wallace, V asileje Micic, Tre Mann, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Jaylin Williams, Ousmane Dieng, Davis Bertans and Aleksej Pokusevski have to be contributors for coach Mark Daigneault if they hope to have success. Oklahoma City was 24th in the league in field goal percentage as they shot 46.5% from the floor as a team on the year. The Thunder were 15th by hitting 12.1 threes per game and 17th in three-point shooting by hitting 35.6% of their attempts from beyond the arc.
Jaylin Willams (hamstring) is out indefinitely with a strain: he is due to be re-evaluated at the end of October. Kenrich Williams (back) is slated to miss at least the first two games of the season, according to Clemente Almanza of the Thunder Wire, so he is out here as well.
Free Daily NCAAF Lock Pick, Tuesday October 24th: Liberty vs Western Kentucky 7:30pmET CLICK TO SEE PICK NOW