Getty Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder will take on Al Horford and the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
Russell Westbrook will look to get the struggling Oklahoma City Thunder on track on Thursday night when they host the Boston Celtics.
The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. If you don’t have cable or can’t get to a TV, you can watch a live stream of the game (or DVR it) on your computer, phone or streaming device via one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
TNT is one of 85 channels included in the main Fubo bundle, which is tailored towards sports. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the FuboTV app.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV comes with 30 hours of Cloud DVR (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours), as well as a “72-Hour Lookback” feature, which allows you to watch games up to three days after they air even if you forgot to record them.
In addition to a Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu also offers a bundle of 50-plus live TV channels, including TNT. You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Hulu app.
If you can’t watch live, “Hulu with Live TV” comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
TNT is included in both the “Sling Orange” and “Sling Blue” channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of either, and you can then watch the game live on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Sling TV app.
If you can’t watch live, you can get 50 hours of cloud DVR storage as an additional add-on.
Preview
Few expected the Oklahoma City Thunder to start the season 0-3. Not even with Westbrook’s missing the first two games in the wake of offseason knee surgery.
Losses to the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers sans Westbrook weren’t all that surprising. But a 131-120 home defeat at the hands of the lowly Sacramento Kings in Game 3 was.
Westbrook’s 35 minutes, 32 points, and eight assists all led the Thunder. He shot 13-of-23 and pulled down 12 rebounds.
“I was OK, it wasn’t my best night,” Westbrook told reporters after the loss. “We have however many more games left to play so I’m not worried, my first time, I just hate losing, honestly. I really don’t care to talk about how hard I played.”
Particularly concerning: the play of Dennis Schroder, whom the team landed in the Carmelo Anthony trade this offseason. The guard started in Westbrook’s place in the first two games, and played 32 minutes against the Kings on Monday. He’s shooting a miserable 28 percent from the field.
He and Westbrook are expected to share the floor a lot this season.
“It’s a work in progress,” Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said of the Westbrook–Schroder backcourt, according to The Oklahoman.
“To be honest with you, that was probably one of the few times — we had a few times in practice, where it was controlled — where we had those guys out there together to give them some concepts and some things to play out of. I actually thought they played pretty well together. The biggest thing is we moved the ball. We got to the paint. We kicked it out. I thought we generated good shots.”
Oklahoma City’s first win of the season should be hard to come by against Boston.
The 2-2 Celtics suffered their own upset loss on Monday, a 93-90 defeat against the Orlando Magic. They shot just 40.7 percent from the field, and 22.5 percent from three-point range.
Still, head coach Brad Stevens was encouraged with the way his team played.
“That was the best offensively we played all season as far as moving the ball,” Stevens said, according to team reporter Marc D’Amico. The coach added that the team could have reach 35 assists on the night had they connected on open shots.
The team’s expensive stars are struggling across the board: Kyrie Irving is averaging 16.5 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting; Gordon Hayward’s scoring just 11.7 points per game on 42.1 percent shooting in his return from a year-long absence; and big man Al Horford is scoring 11.5 points per game, shooting 43.6 percent.
Boston swept the teams’ two-game regular season series last year by a combined eight points.