The Oklahoma City Thunder (8-2) kick off a rare back-to-back on the road against the same team as they take on the Portland Trail Blazers (6-3) tonight and tomorrow night. OKC enters the matchup riding a 4-game win streak, while the Blazers have dropped two straight.
Despite the consecutive losses, Portland is off to a pretty good start to the season. The guard-heavy roster has found early success, and while the schedule hasn’t been particularly difficult, they have some solid wins. Deni Avdija leads the Blazers with 22.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 6.3 assists; and Damian’s Lillard’s return to Portland has been good for him as he’s averaging 19.4 points, 4.4 assists, and 3.2 rebounds.
Oklahoma City is riding a 4-game win streak, which includes 2 wins against Cleveland and 2 blowouts wins. The Thunder hold a nice advantage over the Blazers in recent history, and they hope to maintain their dominance tonight. Limiting Portland’s shooting from the outside will be key, but both teams do a good job at limiting opposing teams in the paint. Whoever wins the inside game early will have the best opportunity at knocking down shots from downtown. The Thunder are trending in a positive direction overall, so hopefully they can pick up a win in the first meeting of this scheduling quirk.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 10 PM CT
Location: Moda Center (Portland, Oregon)
Television: NBA on NBC/Peacock, Thunder+, KSBI OKC, KQCW Tulsa
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: Ajay Mitchell
- SF: Jared McCain
- PF: Kenrich Williams
- C: Isaiah Hartenstein
Blazers
- PG: Damian Lillard
- SG: Scoot Henderson
- SF: Toumani Camara
- PF: Deni Avdija
- C: Donovan Clingan
Injury Report
Thunder
- Chet Holmgren (right knee patellar tendinitis) is OUT.
- Thomas Sorber (right knee surgery) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (G League — on assignment) is OUT.
- Cason Wallace (left shoulder labral tear) is OUT.
- Jalen Williams (left ankle fracture) is OUT.
- Jaylin Williams (lower back spasms) is OUT
Blazers
- Vit Krejci (fractured left ankle) is OUT.
- Ja Morant (strained left hamstring) is OUT.
- Shaedon Sharpe (right meniscus surgery) is OUT.
- John Tonje (G League — two-way) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder are 43-26 (24-11 at home, 20-15 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 have won the season series against the Trail Blazers 9 times, lost it 6 times, and tied 3 times.
- OKC went 3-1 against Portland last season (2-0 at home, 1-1 on the road).
- The Thunder have won 19 of the last 20 matchups with the Blazers, including 9 of their last 10 meetings at the Moda Center.