The Oklahoma City Thunder have been among the NBA’s best at forcing turnovers this season, while the Utah Jazz have been the most turnover-prone team in the league.
Oklahoma City will look to take advantage of that on Monday night when it faces the visiting Jazz.
The Thunder are coming off a 138-136 overtime win over Golden State on Friday where they forced 29 turnovers, leading to 35 points.
Oklahoma City is tied for the NBA lead, forcing 16.9 turnovers per game. Utah is averaging 17.7 giveaways.
The Thunder are also leading the league with 20.6 points off turnovers per game, while the Jazz are tied for the league worst, allowing 20.6 points per game off turnovers.
Jalen Williams has been a big reason for Oklahoma City’s success on both ends of the floor.
In Friday’s win, Williams had 28 points, five rebounds, a season-high three steals, two assists and a block.
“It’s almost like he got more energy as it went on,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Williams. “He expends so much energy yelling after we get a stop, and yet he’s got the juice to continue to guard.”
In five games since returning from a three-game absence due to injury, Williams has averaged 19.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists.
“We’ve got a bunch of competitors on the team, guys that don’t back down, guys that want to be great at the end of the day,” Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said.
The Thunder have won three of their past four games.
The Jazz have dropped back-to-back games and four of their past five. Utah is just 1-10 on the road this season; Detroit is the only other team in the NBA without multiple wins away from home.
Utah is coming off a 117-103 loss to the Clippers on Friday after losing by 50 in Dallas on Wednesday.
“The margin of error is small as far as winning in this league,” Jazz guard Keyonte George said. “You can do everything the right way and still lose.”
While Utah coach Will Hardy said he was encouraged by his team’s response after what he called a “horrendous performance” against the Mavericks, the Jazz still came up short against Los Angeles.
“I’m honest with the team, I will say when I think that things need to be done differently,” Hardy said. “I will say when I think that their approach — or our approach — is not appropriate for what we’re trying to do and where we’re trying to go, and I thought that (Friday) I saw a team that was connected and played really hard and struggled to make shots in critical moments.”
Jazz leading scorer Lauri Markkanen has missed the past seven games with a hamstring strain but has recently returned to full participation in practice. It’s not yet clear when Markkanen will return, but he figures to come back soon. However, he will not play against the Thunder.
“We’ve got to make sure that all the strength levels are there,” Markkanen said.
Monday’s meeting is the first of four between the teams this season. The Thunder won three of four matchups against Utah last season.
–Field Level Media
