The Oklahoma City Thunder hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night in the second game of a back-to-back for OKC. Last night, the Thunder dropped a pretty embarrassing loss on the road to a short-handed San Antonio Spurs squad. Tonight, the Thunder is a heavy favorite against the Blazers, and they could use a dominant win to get back on track.
Since losing Chet Holmgren to injury, OKC has struggled to truly figure out how they want to play basketball. At times, they have managed to balance out the rebounding battle just fine, but on the offensive end, it feels like they’re putting up far too many shots from deep instead of attacking the basket like they are so good at. Portland is likely without big man DeAndre Ayton, so it would do the Thunder well to continue to try to find ways to survive without a big man until Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams are able to return to play in a couple of weeks.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 7 PM CT
Location: Paycom Center (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Television: FanDuel TV – Oklahoma
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live tweets and discussion during the game
Game Notes: Oklahoma City Thunder Official Game Notes, Portland Trail Blazers Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Cason Wallace
- SF: Aaron Wiggins
- PF: Luguentz Dort
- C: Jalen Williams
Blazers
- PG: Anfernee Simons
- SG: Shaedon Sharpe
- SF: Toumani Camara
- PF: Jerami Grant
- C: Donovan Clingan
Thunder
- Isaiah Hartenstein (fractured left hand) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Chet Holmgren (fractured right iliac wing) is OUT.
- Isaiah Joe (left calf contusion) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Nikola Topic (left ACL surgery recovery) is OUT.
- Jaylin Williams (strained right hamstring) is OUT.
Blazers
- DeAndre Ayton (deep contusion in right index finger) is DOUBTFUL.
- Bryce McGowens (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Justin Minaya (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Taze Moore (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Anfernee Simons (illness) is QUESTIONABLE.
- Matisse Thybulle (right knee injury management) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder is 38-26 (20-11 at home, 18-15 on the road) against the Trail Blazers in the regular season and 1-4 (1-1 at home, 0-3 on the road) in the playoffs.
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder has won the season series against the Trail Blazers 7 times, lost it 6 times, and tied 3 times.
- The Thunder went 4-0 (2-0 at home, 2-0 on the road) against the Blazers last season.
- The Thunder has won 13 straight against the Blazers including 6 straight in OKC.