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2023-24 NBA Regular Season
Oklahoma City Thunder v Miami Heat
Paycom Center
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Saturday 9 March 2024
Tip-off at 03:00
Oklahoma City Thunder will continue their battle for top spot in the Western Conference when they lock horns with Miami Heat at the Paycom Center on the morning of Saturday, March 9.
The Thunder were booming in February as they won nine of their 11 games to keep the pressure on Minnesota Timberwolves in the race to qualify as top seeds in the West.
But Mark Daigneault's team lost for the second time in three games with a 116-104 defeat to Los Angeles Lakers on March 5 to put them a half-game behind the Timberwolves in second place.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the scoring for Oklahoma with 20 points against the Lakers, snapping his streak of eight consecutive 30-point games, and Daigneault felt they lacked a sharpness going up the court.
"Our start was good offensively, but our overall sharpness just wasn't there," Daigneault said. "Defensively, we turned them over a bunch of times, and that kept us in it. But certainly not our fastball tonight.
"I just didn't think we were as sharp offensively as we needed to be. A team like that that's got size and physicality, that's a requirement to hit shots against them, but we just didn't do that enough."
The Heat also impressed last month after losing just two of their 11 games and winning five on the spin at the end of February.
Erik Spoelstra's team moved up to sixth in the Eastern Conference on the back of successive wins against Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons to place them a half-game behind New York Knicks (5th) and Orlando Magic (4th).
A late surge from Jimmy Butler, who scored 15 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter, helped Miami across the line in a 118-110 victory over the Pistons on March 6.
"These next 21 games, there's probably going to be a lot of these," Spoelstra said. "It's just the way it's going right now.
"Everybody's fighting for playoff positioning. We just do whatever's necessary right now."
Oklahoma City Thunder v Miami Heat - Head-to-head, Regular Season
Games played: 71
Thunder wins: 41
Heat wins: 30
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