The Portland Trail Blazers (32-41, 17-19 Home) will try to slow down one of the NBA’s top scoring teams when they play host to the Oklahoma City Thunder (36-38, 14-23 Away) on Sunday.
Oklahoma City lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 116-111 at Crypto.com Arena on Friday. Josh Giddey was the key player in defeat with 27 points, 17 rebounds, and seven assists.
The Thunder are 11th in the Western Conference. Portland dropped their fifth straight home game in blowout fashion on Friday at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter, falling to the Chicago Bulls 124-96. Shaedon Sharpe had 24 points in the loss to lead the team. The Trail Blazers are the 13th seed in the Western Conference.
This is the last meeting of the season between the teams. After winning all three of the prior season games against Portland, the last of which was a 138-129 victory at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter on February 10, their seventh straight head-to-head victory, Oklahoma City will be aiming for a season sweep. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 44 points and seven assists.
Damian Lillard had 38 points and nine assists in the losing effort. The Thunder have been led this season by Gilgeous-Alexander, who is averaging 31.3 points per game, fourth-highest in the league. Meanwhile, Giddey is contributing 7.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game.
Lillard (32.2 ppg) has been the primary provider for the Blazers on offense. He has the third-highest scoring average in the league. Lillard also has tallied 7.3 assists per game. Jusuf Nurkic has averaged 9.1 rebounds per game.
The Thunder rank as one of the most explosive offenses in the league, fifth-best with 117.4 points per game. The teams have split their last 10 meetings at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter (5-5).
Oklahoma City is 6-4 in the last 10 games with an average margin of -2.1 (112.3-114.4). Portland has a 3-7 record over the last 10, allowing 119.0 points per game on average while scoring only 109.8 (-9.2 margin).
THUNDER HOT/COLD
(Last Five | Season Average | Differential)
Points + Rebounds + Assists:
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl: 8.5 | 12.5 | -4.0
TRAIL BLAZERS HOT/COLD
(Last Five | Season Average | Differential)
Points + Rebounds + Assists:
Trendon Watford: 24.0 | 12.7 | +11.3
Nassir Little: 4.0 | 9.7 | -5.7
Points per game:
Shaedon Sharpe: 14.2 | 8.3 | +5.9
Cam Reddish: 5.4 | 9.8 | -4.4
Rebounds per game:
Damian Lillard: 6.3 | 4.8 | +1.5
SportsTips’ NBA Pick:
OKC Thunder -9.5 (-115)
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*Odds correct at time of publication, courtesy of BetMGM.
