Portland Trail Blazers vs Oklahoma City Thunder

The Portland Trail Blazers wrap up a quick two-game road trip in Oklahoma City tonight and could be gassed vs the Thunder after playing last night against the Mavericks. The Blazers held a lead late in the fourth quarter but let it slip away in a one-point loss. The Thunder, on the other hand, are rolling through the competition and have gone 10-1 SU and 9-2 against the spread in their last 11 games.

The Thunder opened as 6.5-point favorites with a total of 231.  

Blazers vs Thunder Game Center

Blazers on a Back-To-Back Has Me Worried

Sitting in fourth in the crowded Western Conference standings, the margin for error is shrinking drastically for the Blazers as the difference between the No. 4 seed and being out of the playoff standings is only three games. Portland needed to get that win over the Mavs last night and with a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, the Blazers were held to only nine points in the final frame and outscored by 15 points.

Now on the second game of a back-to-back, the Blazers have not fared well in that spot when playing on the road. Portland is 4-4 SU and ATS in eight games on the back end of a B2B but those four losses all came in away games to Sacramento, Memphis, Milwaukee and this same Thunder squad on January 22 (final score: 123-114).

The good news for Blazers backers is their offense has played quite well over the last 10 games by ranking third in the NBA in points per game (124) with a +7.7 point differential and in the top five in both field-goal and three-point percentage. So, unless the offense dies in the fourth quarter again like in the Blazers’ last outing, they should at least be competitive in this one.

Thunder Are Rolling at Home

Winners of 10 of their last 11 games while covering the spread in nine of them, the Thunder kind of get lost in the discussion as one of the best teams in the NBA. OKC is only one game back of the Nuggets for second in the Western Conference and even though the Thunder didn’t make any huge deadline trades, they didn’t really need to because their roster has all the pieces for a deep run.

Russell Westbrook is still the king of the triple-double as he has stuffed the stat sheet in his last nine games and has allowed Paul George to become the main scoring threat in OKC. PG-13 has scored 30 or more points in nine of the Thunder’s last 11 games and it’s not a coincidence that OKC has gone 10-1 SU and 9-2 ATS in those games while averaging 123.9 points per game, which is second in the NBA over that span. Three-point shooting has been the key factor in that recent offensive production as the Thunder are shooting a blistering 44 percent from deep with George leading the way at 60-for-125 (48 percent) beyond the arc in the last 11 games.

The more I dive into the Thunder’s stats, the more I’m liking them in this spot. They’ve won their last five games at home and covered the spread in four of them and beat this Blazers team by nine points just over two weeks ago.

When These Teams Take The Court, The UNDER Typically Follows

The total opened at 231 and while both of these teams have been lighting up the scoreboard lately, trends are pointing to an UNDER in this one. The UNDER has hit in three of the last four games in this matchup with an average combined score of 219.5. When the Blazers have been on the second game of a back-to-back, the UNDER has also hit in four of the last five games in that spot.

My Pick Is...

To take the Thunder to win and cover the spread. This is just a bad matchup for the Blazers and being on the back end of a B2B only makes it worse for their chances to come away with a victory. The Thunder are hammering teams right now and beat this team handily just over two weeks ago.