Los Angeles @ Oklahoma City preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 22, 2019 ) L.A. Lakers 130, Oklahoma City 127

The red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder face a tough test when they host the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. Oklahoma City has won 11 of its last 13 games after easily handling the Houston Rockets on Thursday while Los Angeles owns the best record in the Western Conference.

The Thunder rolled to a 113-92 win over the Rockets in Russell Westbrook's return to Oklahoma City and now aim to slow down the stellar Lakers. "They're great in transition because of LeBron (James) and they've got guys that can really fill the lanes," Thunder coach Billy Donovan told reporters. "The biggest part is can you get back and get the floor balanced because they're so explosive in attacking in transition." Los Angeles may be without star power forward Anthony Davis (bruised gluteus maximus) for the second straight game but the club fared well without him Friday while notching a 129-114 road win over the Dallas Mavericks for its seventh consecutive win. "It was a great team effort," Los Angeles coach Frank Vogel said afterward. "We've committed to be in attack mode. We picked up our offensive pace of late and we've played pretty solid on the defensive end most of the year."

TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: Spectrum SportsNet, FS Oklahoma

ABOUT THE LAKERS (31-7): Los Angeles racked up 79 first-half points while easily handling Dallas as James dominated with 35 points and a season-best 16 rebounds. Forward Kyle Kuzma scored a season-high 26 points as he stepped up as the second option with Davis sidelined. "It's a next-man up mentality," Kuzma said in a postgame television interview. "It means everybody collectively has to raise their level of play and everybody did that on the defensive end and offensive end and we did a great job of having a team win."

ABOUT THE THUNDER (22-16): Five different players scored 15 or more points in the rout of the Rockets with forward Danilo Gallinari (calf) returning from a one-game absence to lead the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points, point guard Chris Paul added 18, backup guard Dennis Schroder had 16 and center Steven Adams tallied 15 as Oklahoma City displayed impressive efficiency. "When we move the ball and play with pace, it's really tough to guard us," Schroder told reporters. "We just have to keep improving on that. Just get stops and from there on just play with pace on the offensive end, move the ball. We've got so many weapons, it's really hard to guard."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Lakers won this season's first two meetings with the Thunder by an average of four points.

2. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 20 or more points in 10 of the past 12 games and is averaging 23.7 during the span.

3. Los Angeles backup C Dwight Howard is 44-of-55 shooting (80 percent) over the last 13 games.

PREDICTION: Thunder 118, Lakers 113