Oklahoma City Thunder at Atlanta Hawks

·Mon Oct 12·7:00 PM ET·Atlanta, GA

By JR·2 min read

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Monday 10/127:00 PM

TLDR: It's preseason, so nobody's getting a banner out of Monday's game. What's worth watching is whether Oklahoma City's big men finally get on the floor and whether Atlanta's rookie keeps forcing his way into the rotation.

MON 10/12, MON OCT 12, 7:00 PM

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Monday's game is a preseason game in Atlanta with both rosters held back by caution. The main story on Oklahoma City's side is a frontcourt that has been resting: Holmgren, Hartenstein, Sorber and Jaylin Williams all sat the Milwaukee game. Atlanta is coming off a 23-point comeback over San Antonio led by rookie Kingston Flemings, but it plays Indiana first and has been resting Dort and Jalen Johnson.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Holmgren and Hartenstein both pointed at Monday for return
Holmgren's absence reported as precautionary, not structural
4 bigs sat the Milwaukee game
Topic (back) still being held out

Atlanta Hawks

Erased a 23-point deficit against San Antonio
Flemings: 15 points, 5 assists, 3 steals
Daniels' rebounding (11 boards) against a thin Thunder frontcourt
Dort, Jalen Johnson and Gilbert all sat Thursday
Veesaar out for the season, thinning the center depth
Plays Indiana first, so availability could still change

The Thunder have spent the exhibition slate resting their frontcourt. Chet Holmgren (quadriceps) and Isaiah Hartenstein (ankle) both sat Wednesday's preseason game against Milwaukee, and Hartenstein had already missed the opener with the same sore ankle. Reports have Holmgren holding out as a precaution, and both have Monday in Atlanta pegged as their next shot at exhibition minutes. Whether Oklahoma City actually plays them is the first thing to check before tipoff.

The list goes past those 2. Thomas Sorber (knee), Jaylin Williams (heel) and Nikola Topic (back) were all ruled out against the Bucks too. That's 5 rotation-or-depth pieces, 4 of them bigs, being managed at once. If most of them stay in street clothes, Oklahoma City will be playing small out of necessity against an Atlanta team that just showed it can rebound.

Atlanta doesn't come in clean either, and it has a game in between: the Hawks visit Indiana on October 10, so their health picture can still change before Monday. In Thursday's 123-116 preseason win over San Antonio, Lu Dort (knee), Jalen Johnson (rest) and Keshon Gilbert (left patella tendinitis) all sat. Henri Veesaar is out for the season with a torn right ACL, and Mouhamed Gueye is coming back from surgery on a fractured left foot.

The San Antonio game is the best evidence of what this Hawks team looks like. Atlanta was down 23 and came back by shooting 39.1% from 3, with 10 of those 3s in the second quarter alone. Rookie guard Kingston Flemings put up 15 points, 5 assists and 3 steals and played like he wants real minutes. Dyson Daniels grabbed 11 rebounds as a guard, and CJ McCollum went 4-for-6 from deep in 19 minutes.

It wasn't all good. Corey Kispert needed 11 shots for 10 points and got picked on defensively, and Jalen Wilson scored 2 points on 1-for-3 shooting. Atlanta is still sorting out who earns minutes behind its starters, and with Johnson and Dort sitting, that sorting is happening in real games.

Tipoff at State Farm Arena is 7:00 PM ET. The scoreboard won't mean much. The useful stuff is how many minutes Holmgren and Hartenstein get if they're cleared, how Atlanta's guards do on the glass against a short-handed Thunder frontcourt, and whether Flemings follows up the San Antonio game with another good one.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Atlanta Hawks

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