Mavericks vs Thunder Preview, Injury Report, and Game Thread: Oh no

This may be an uphill climb!

The Dallas Mavericks (22-19) host the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder (34-6) in American Airlines Center on Friday night. Dallas is coming off yet another painful loss, this time to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Thunder destroyed the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, scoring 75 in the first half and winning by 20 points. This game may not be much of a contest given the Dallas injury woes! But here are the main thing to know:

• WHO: Dallas Mavericks vs Oklahoma City Thunder
• WHAT: Slaying Goliath
• WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. CST
• HOW: Channel 29, and Playback with Kirk, Matthew, and David

The injury report is still stinky for Dallas, but that isn’t a surprise. Luka Doncic, Dante Exum, and Dereck Lively are all out with their respective injuries. Kyrie Irving is questionable, but it seems crazy to play him in a game like this (he’s probably going to play per my gut). It’s just not great for the Mavs! The Thunder are missing both of their big me. Chet Holmgren is still out with the hip injury of course. But Isaiah Hartenstein will miss this game as well. That mean’s the Thunder aren’t very large, but that didn’t matter at all against the Cavaliers last night.

Expectations can’t be high for this game. Dallas is playing bad while also nursing many injuries. The Thunder are the best team in the league, winning 85% of their games this year. At most, I am looking for things from PJ Washington, who’s been bad since his knee injury. Anything after that will feel like a bonus.

As you can tell below, you can join me and some other Mavs Moneyball guys in a room on Playback (embedded below) during the game (though I may not be able to start it until halftime). Also, consider joining Josh and I on Pod Maverick live after the game on YouTube, we should start around 10:30 pm. Thanks so much for spending time with us here at Mavs Moneyball. Let’s go Mavs!