Portland at Oklahoma City
Time: 7 PM (CT), NBA TV
Spread: OKC -8
Total: 204.5
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Portland Trail Blazers have won its past two games and currently reside at the No. 6 spot in the Western Conference. Portland will travel to face the team directly ahead of it in the standings tonight on NBA TV, and the Blazers are 8-point underdogs to Russell Westbrook and the Thunder on the road. OKC has posted a 14-6 mark at home this season and won seven of its past 10 games. The over/under is set at 204.5 points according to NBA oddsmakers at bookmaker 5dimes.
POR
Portland most recently knocked off the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks, by one point(s) and 21 points, respectively. The Blazers won despite former Trailblazer LaMarcus Aldridge posting 30 points, as C.J. McCollum had a big game of his own with 25 points in 38 minutes. Damian Lillard sat out, which gave McCollum the go-ahead to attempt 24 field goals. Maurice Harkless scored 19 of the Blazers’ 37 points off the bench, and Portland shot 52 percent from the floor while turning the ball over only nine times in the game. The Blazers trailed by five at the half, but used a strong third quarter to reverse that and won the game in the closing seconds by a point.
McCollum has been playing extremely well lately for the Blazers, too. He is averaging 22.8 points on 43 percent shooting over his last five games, and is tallying 5.4 assists per contest over that span, too. McCollum is averaging 24 points per game in the month of January, and he should have an outside shot at being an All-Star reserve for the first time in his NBA career. As for Lillard, he will sit out tonight’s game, as well, as he deals with a calf injury.
That undoubtedly is what has shifted the spread to 8-points between teams that are fairly equal, but if McCollum has another huge game it could spell trouble for the Thunder, even though they have all three of their superstars healthy for this affair.
OKC
While Russell Westbrook continues to play amazing basketball, Carmelo Anthony is struggling to find his niche and role with his new team. Chances of demoting Anthony to a Sixth Man remain low, howsoever it might be the best thing that Billy Donovan could do to inject some life into the Thunders’ second unit. Anthony is averaging a career-low 17.6 points per game and attempting just 15.6 field goals per game.
Similarly, Paul George has reduced his load to 16.4 shots per game, but Westbrook maintains his 21.1 field goals per game. The balance needs to be struck more, particularly since outside of that big Three, and Steven Adams, the Thunder get so little offense from the rest of its cast.
Indeed, a sheer lack of depth continually hurts the Thunder. Jerami Grant, Ray Felton, Alex Abrines and Andre Roberson are all fine players, but a team is in trouble when that quartet comprises its fifth through ninth best players. None of them are major scoring threats, and the Thunder still are not vastly utilizing Patrick Patterson, who looms as a potential source of mid-range shooting and rebounding. While the team does not likely regret losing Victor Oladipo, as well as he is playing in Indiana, maybe it should.
Beyond that, it is not likely George remains in OKC after this season, making this experimental rental all the more of a failure if the Thunder cannot manage to get more from George, and the rest of its team. The Thunder have been strong defensively, but with just three scorers and an active Adams, it is difficult to envision this team posing any legitimate threat to either Houston or Golden State.
