Oklahoma
Oklahoma City Thunder Faces Orlando, Looks For 4th Straight Victory
Orlando Magic (21-17, eighth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (26-11, second in the Western Conference)
Oklahoma City; Saturday, 8 p.m. EST
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK NBA LINE: Thunder -11.5; over/under is 232
BOTTOM LINE: Oklahoma City heads into a matchup against Orlando as winners of three games in a row.
The Thunder are 15-5 in home games. Oklahoma City ranks eighth in the Western Conference with 33.1 defensive rebounds per game led by Chet Holmgren averaging 5.8.
The Magic are 8-12 on the road. Orlando has a 10-15 record against teams over .500.
The Thunder make 50.9% of their shots from the field this season, which is 3.4 percentage points higher than the Magic have allowed to their opponents (47.5%). The Magic average 11.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.8 fewer made shots on average than the 13.8 per game the Thunder allow.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jalen Williams is scoring 18.3 points per game and averaging 4.1 rebounds for the Thunder. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.8 points and 6.2 rebounds over the last 10 games for Oklahoma City.
Paolo Banchero is averaging 23 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists for the Magic. Jalen Suggs is averaging 3.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Orlando.
LAST 10 GAMES: Thunder: 8-2, averaging 128.4 points, 40.5 rebounds, 32.2 assists, 7.2 steals and 6.6 blocks per game while shooting 55.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 114.0 points per game.
Magic: 4-6, averaging 112.0 points, 43.8 rebounds, 24.1 assists, 8.6 steals and 5.6 blocks per game while shooting 45.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 115.2 points.
INJURIES: Thunder: None listed.
Magic: Jonathan Isaac: day to day (illness), Gary Harris: day to day (calf), Wendell Carter Jr.: day to day (knee), Franz Wagner: day to day (ankle).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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Last season, Alabama football was effectively eliminated from College Football Playoff contention by way of a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma that was entirely uncharacteristic of the team that had just trounced LSU 42-13 two weekends prior.
The wait for the rematch spans less than a year, 357 days in total. On Nov. 15, the No. 4 Crimson Tide (7-1, 5-0 SEC) will meet the No. 11 Sooners at home at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be nationally televised on ABC.
Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2 SEC) is 2-0 in true SEC road games this fall. Those wins came at South Carolina and at Tennessee, respectively. The Sooners had a 6-7 season last year, its first in the conference, with the upset over Alabama paving the way for Brent Venables’ team to get into a bowl game.
Alabama began year two of the Kalen DeBoer era with a theme that continued from 2024 and was perhaps most exemplified by that Oklahoma game: losing on the road to an unranked team. However, since then, the Crimson Tide has not lost a game (though it came close in its 29-22 triumph at South Carolina on Oct. 25).
This Saturday, the Crimson Tide plays host to LSU in a game that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. CT, also on ABC. The Tigers (5-3, 2-3 SEC) revamped their coaching staff after a 49-25 home loss against undefeated Texas A&M Oct. 25, relieving head coach Brian Kelly of his duties the next day and dismissing offensive coordinator Joe Sloan the day after that.
The Sooners would do well to avoid another loss for their own hopes to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff. Texas and Ole Miss have defeated Oklahoma so far in 2025 (the Sooners and Longhorns play one another at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas), and a third loss with an SEC featuring so many contenders for a berth would be catastrophic. Oklahoma is on a bye this weekend, meaning it will be rested for the game at Alabama.
Alabama has not lost a conference home game since November of 2019 against LSU. All four of the Crimson Tide’s 2024 losses under DeBoer occurred away from Tuscaloosa. Its last home loss overall was in September 2023 against the Longhorns. That year, the team went on to make the last iteration of the four-team Playoff in what turned out to be Nick Saban’s final season as head coach.
The Tennessee Volunteers played one of their more important games of the college football season on Saturday night, as they played one of their most important and most beneficial home games of the season, as the Tennessee Vols played against the Oklahoma Sooners. This is a game that the Vols were expected to win, but that was not the case for the game outcome, as the Vols walked away from the game with a loss. The Tennessee Volunteers lost the game in front of their home crowd, and this was their second loss in program history with their black uniforms. This is something that hasn’t been very common, but even through those superstitions, things still can go south.
This team didn’t show up the way that many hoped they would, but even in that same breath, the Oklahoma Sooners didn’t either. However, the Sooners showed up more than the Vols did, as the Vols walked away with a loss.
This performance caught the attention of many, including one of the main players who used to play for the Tennessee Volunteers. That player is Daniel Bituli, who is known for not keeping his thoughts to himself, as he isn’t afraid of letting his thoughts be known. This is something that has been noticed throughout the season with Bituli, as he made it clear how he feels during the game.
Here is what the Tennessee fan and former player had to say about the Vols during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Volsfootball1217 0180 / Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
“Respectfully, some of our guys are acting soft asf.”
While this team has lost three games it is safe to say that some expectations has still been exceeded. Let’s remember that the Vols lost a lot of players to the transfer portal. One of the players being Nico Iamaleava, who was all but confirmed to be the starting QB for the Vols this season.
The Vols have been looking to improve what they have built, but the real work has yet to be finished, as this is a young team with a llot of returning pieces. The Vols have an exciting future, but they will need to continue to get better, and in the opinion of former Tennessee Volunteers linebacker Daniel Bituli, the Vols need to fix some of these acts that they have been having such as acting soft.
This is a team with a lot of positives, and some negatives to go with it, but this season if far from over as the Tennessee Vols have three regular season games and a post season bowl game ahead of them.
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