Memphis @ Oklahoma City preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 18, 2019 ) Memphis 122, Oklahoma City 126

The Memphis Grizzlies are hoping two days off for a Christmas break can help the team forget about some of the breakdowns on the defensive end that occurred during a 145-115 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. The Grizzlies will try to get things right when they visit the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.

Memphis dropped three of its last four games - a stretch that began with a 126-122 setback at Oklahoma City in which it squandered a 24-point lead - but the worst loss of the bunch came as it allowed the Spurs to shoot 67.4 percent from the floor on Monday. "They had a response for everything we were throwing out there coverage-wise, schematic-wise," Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins told reporters. "There're obviously things we're going to go back and look at and say, 'Could we have made this a little bit harder, that a little bit harder?'" The Thunder are winners of four in a row and pulled above .500 for the first time this season with Sunday's 118-112 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. "No ego whatsoever, man," Oklahoma City point guard Chris Paul told reporters of the team's success. "There may be times where there are arguments but that's healthy. We all understand it may be a different guys night on that night. We defend, play hard and we know that most teams aren't going to have three guys that can defend, so one of us is going to have a mismatch."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Southeast (Memphis), FS Oklahoma

ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (11-20): Memphis tried to focus on the positives after Monday's setback and pointed to the play of forward Jaren Jackson, Jr., who scored 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and knocked down 6-of-9 from beyond the arc in the loss. "I just feel good shooting," Jackson told reporters. "The rhythm is there. It's all about getting your feet right, it's always been about that, just getting your feet right so you don't have to waste time on that, so you can spend more time on your balance and other areas when you shoot it." Jackson is averaging 21.3 points over the last three games and knocked down multiple 3-pointers in each of those contests.

ABOUT THE THUNDER (15-14): Oklahoma City is making recovering from big deficits a regular occurrence and pulled out of a 26-point hole to open the homestand against Chicago before the 24-point comeback against the Grizzlies and an 18-point comeback in Sunday's triumph. A key to Sunday's win was the play of guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who matched his career high of 32 points for the second straight game and drew praise from coach Billy Donovan for not settling for 3-pointers. "He's getting to areas of the floor and spots on the floor where he's really efficient," Donovan told reporters. "He was really intentional about trying to get into the paint and when he got angles into the paint that's where he is obviously really good in terms of generating shots."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Thunder SF Danilo Gallinari (ankle) sat out Sunday and is day-to-day.

2. Grizzlies rookie F Brandon Clarke is shooting 66.7 percent from the floor over the last seven games.

3. The home team took each of the last five meetings.

PREDICTION: Thunder 123, Grizzlies 109