Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trail Blazers: Match Preview and Predictions - 8th December 2019
Match details
Fixture: Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trail Blazers
Date & Time: Sunday, 8 December, 2019 (9:00 PM ET)
Venue: Moda Center, Portland, OR
Last game results
Oklahoma City (9-12): 139-127 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves (Friday, December 6th, 2019)
Portland Trail Blazers (9-14): 113-136 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (Friday, December, 6th, 2019
Oklahoma City Thunders Preview
The OKC Thunder were a playoff team last season. However, the off-season deals that removed Paul George and Russell Westbrook from their roster means the Thunder are in rebuild mode. They are 9th in the Western Conference at 9-12 outside of a playoff spot. On Friday night, they needed overtime to subdue the Minnesota Timberwolves 139-127 using a 17-5 run in OT to secure the win. Five OKC Thunder players scored 20 or more points led by point guard Chris Paul with 30 in the win.
Key Player-Chris Paul
This past off-season saw the Thunder’s management team forced to trade away star players like Paul George and Russell Westbrook. The only star player returning was Chris Paul. For the moment, the 34-year-old point guard is the 4th leading scorer for the Thunder with 15.8 points per game. Paul still has great floor vision and leads the Thunder with 6 assists per game. He was their best player in a 139-127 victory over Minnesota Friday night with 30 points.
Thunder predicted lineup
Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Steven Adams, Abdel Nader, Danilo Gallinari.
Portland Trail Blazers Preview
The Portland Trailblazers were a playoff team last April. Portland knocked OKC out of the playoffs with a 4-1 series victory in the first round of the playoffs. This season Portland finds itself 11th in the West and out of a playoff position. Friday night, Portland fell to the Los Angeles Lakers 113-136. The Trailblazers gave up 70 points to Anthony Davis and LeBron James while Damian Lillard responded, for Portland, with 29 points. To compound their woes, the Trail Blazers lost Rodney Hood nine minutes into the contest with a torn left Achilles tendon.
Key Player – Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony played 10 games last season in Houston, then got sent home and traded to the Chicago Bulls on January 22nd, 2019. When Chicago waived him, it seemed Carmelo Anthony’s career was over. A year after signing with the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers signed Anthony on November 19th, 2019 to a non-guaranteed contract for one year. In nine games all starts the former 10-time all-star is averaging 16.7 points and 31.3 minutes a game.
Trail Blazers predicted lineup
Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore, Hassan Whiteside.
Thunder vs Trail Blazers Match Prediction
Oklahoma are not a good rebounding team and are ranked 26th in the NBA. With Hassan Whiteside grabbing an average of 3.6 offensive boards per game, Portland could benefit from second-chance points.
The Thunder does not take a lot of shots (ranked 28th in the NBA at 84.6 attempts per game) but does make 46.7 percent of them. The Thunder will need to take good shots to keep the Trailblazers' defense honest and less aggressive.
The Trail Blazers will play at a faster pace than the Thunder. Portland takes 91.5 shot attempts, average 13.8 fast-break points, and 113.4 points a game.
The Trail Blazers do play 12 players 15 minutes or more a game are now down Rodney Hood’s 29.5 minutes a game and 11 point scoring average.
Portland has not defended homecourt well this season at 4-5 and lost Friday night at home to the Lakers. This contest with the Thunder may be close but expect OKC to win this one on the road.
Thunder vs Trail Blazers Where to watch?
You can stream the game live online with NBA League Pass. The game can be watched on tv on NBC Sports North-West and Fox Sports-Oklahoma.