Shooting only 16 percent from behind the arc through two games isn’t always death knell but the Oklahoma City Thunder should be concerned going into Game 3 vs the Portland Trail Blazers. The Thunder are in a 0-2 hole in their first-round series and have only hit 10 of their 61 attempts from behind the arc. However, OKC did take down the Blazers in both of its games at Chesapeake Energy Arena this season with both victories by nine points.
The Thunder opened as 7.5-point favorites with a total of 221.5.
Blazers vs Thunder Game Center
STANDOUT STATS
- The Blazers were scoring at will coming into the postseason and continued that play in Game 1 and 2. Over their final 10 games of the regular season, they were averaging 118.7 points per game while taking the fifth-most shot attempts. In two games of the series, they’ve shot 44 percent from the field and an excellent 42 percent from behind the arc.
- Although the Blazers are short-handed in the paint with Jusuf Nurkic out due to a leg injury, they’ve weathered the storm and concentrated their efforts in stopping opponents’ deep shots. As a result, they were third in the NBA over the last 10 games of the season by limiting opponents to 32.3 percent from behind the arc. This has carried over to this series as they’ve held the Thunder to 10-for-61 from three-point range (16.3 percent).
- Paul George has not looked right for the last few weeks when he hurt his shoulder and it’s shown through two games of this series. George’s three-point shooting after the all-star break dropped to 33.6 percent from 40.6 percent and he’s missed 16 of his 22 attempts from three-point range in this series.
- Playing at home is usually an easy way to jack up your offensive stats but the Thunder have been missing a ton of shots on their home floor. Since the all-star break (14 home games), OKC is second field goal attempts and sixth in three-point attempts but ranked dead last in the NBA in field goal percentage (42.3) and 24th in three-point percentage (32.8 percent). In those games, the Thunder allowed opponents to score 111.3 points per game and to average 46.5 percent shooting. Opposing teams also were destroying them on the perimeter as they allowed opponents to jack up 34.8 attempts from behind the arc (ranked 23rd) and to hit 38.4 percent of those shots (ranked 28th).
- The UNDER was the smart play in Games 1 and 2 and when these teams meet, the UNDER has been the profitable endeavor. The UNDER has hit in six of the last eight games in this matchup with an average combined score of 219.4 points per game.
My Best Bet for Blazers vs Thunder
Blazers +7.5
I was very bullish on the Thunder to win this series handily over the Blazers but I’ll admit where I was wrong. The Thunder are awful shooting the basketball right now and you don’t shoot 10 for 61 from behind the arc and then all of a sudden shoot 40 percent.
The Thunder weren’t a great shooting team for most of the season when Paul George was healthy but now that he can barely use his right shoulder, I can’t bank on the Thunder to overcome that injury. While I do concede the OKC will likely win this game, I can’t trust them to win confidently by eight points or more which makes the Blazers a safe underdog bet.
