The Oklahoma City march to Oregon to take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday at the Moda Center in Portland.
Russell Westbrook has had shooting nights of 4-22, 6-20 and 3-17 over the past two weeks. Russ is coming off a game where he shot 3-22 and broke a 32 year record for posting a triple double while shooting 15% or below. Despite that, the Thunder are still winning and in fact they have won seven out of their last 10 games to rise to 3rd place in the Western Conference at 24-13 on the season.
Paul George is one good reason why OKC is doing well. George leads the Thunder in scoring at 26.7 points per game. Russell Westbrook currently has a triple-double average of 20.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 10.1 assists per game. Steven Adams is averaging 15.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game while Dennis Schroeder is scoring 15.7 points and issuing 4.6 assists per game for OKC.
The Thunder have the 4th best scoring defense in the entire league at only 105.4 points per game allowed. Oklahoma City is also ranked 2nd in rebounds with their 48.8 average. However, the Thunder are only 24th in passing at 22.4 assists per game. They are 11th in the NBA in team scoring at 111.9 points per game scored.
The Portland Trail Blazers are probably playing their best basketball of the season. Portland has won three of its last four games played including the last two. The Blazers wins during that period have come against the Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings. They are currently 22-16 on the season and sitting in 5th place in the Western Conference.
Portland is led by its high scoring backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Lillard leads the team with 26.7 points and 5.8 assists per game while McCollum is scoring 21.1 points and grabbing 3.5 rebounds per game for the Blazers. Jusuf Nurkic is averaging in a double double with 14.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
The Blazers score an average of 111.3 points per game which is the 14th best team scoring average in the league right now. Portland is also 3rd in rebounding at 48.5 boards per game and they are 27th in passing at 21.2 assists per game. The Blazers are 16th overall in scoring defense at 110.4 points per game scored.
Oklahoma City is 7-3 SU in their last 10 games played and the Thunder are 11-9 SU on the road this season. Portland is 7-3 SU in their last 10 games played. The Blazers are 14-6 SU at home this season. Head to head, the Blazers are 7-3 SU in their last 10 games against the Thunder. Portland is a standout in their home floor but a sub-.500 team on the road this season. They score an average of three points per game better when they play at the Moda Center this season.
Russell Westbrook is struggling to hit his shots right now. The 2017 NBA MVP is hitting just 37.4% of his shots and 20.7% from three ball in the last five games. While you can argue on one side that Russ is going to end his slump soon, you can also look at it as Westbrook struggling badly at this stage of the season. I like the latter and given that plus the fact that the Blazers’ plays better at home, I’m going with the home team in a pick ‘em game like this. We’re picking the Portland Trail Blazers to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on 1/4/19.
The Thunder are 21-16 ATS in 37 games played this season. Oklahoma City is 11-9 ATS in 20 road games played so far. The Blazers are 19-19 ATS on the season. Portland is 12-8 ATS in 20 home games played this season. Head to head, the Blazers are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 meetings versus the Thunder.
The Thunder are 7-21 ATS in their last 28 games against the Northwest Division, 8-17-1 in their last 26 in Friday games, 0-6 in their last six meetings against the Blazers and 0-4 ATS in their last four meetings in Portland. The Blazers are 1-4 ATS in their last five Friday games but are 29-13 ATS in their last 42 home games. Prediction: Blazers
The under is 20-15-2 in Oklahoma’s 37 games played and the under is 14-5-1 when the Thunder have played on the road. The total has gone under in 21 out of the 38 games played by Portland this season. The Blazers have seen the under hit in 12 of 20 home games played this season.
The under is 4-1 in the Blazers’ last five games played and the under is also 20-8 in the Thunder’s last 28 road games played. Portland is perceived as a high scoring team but they’ve been in the middle of the pack in team scoring this season. The Thunder have a Top 5 defense and dictate games with their defense so this one should be low scoring. And yes, don’t forget Westbrook is West-brick right now so that helps too. Prediction: Under 223.5
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
