The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the more impressive teams in the Western Conference so far this season. However, since returning from the All-Star break, they've have had their fair share of struggles with five losses in the past fix games. Oklahoma City is coming off a 131-120 loss at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, but Paul George did score 25 points in his first game back after dealing with a sore right shoulder.
On the other hand, the Portland Trail Blazers find themselves tied with the Thunder and Houston Rockets for the third seed in the Western Conference standings. The Trail Blazers have dropped two of their last three games after winning five straight prior to that. Portland certainly will want to have this game with all three teams having the same record.
How to watch Thunder at Trail Blazers
- Date: Thursday, March 7
- Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Moda Center -- Portland, Oregon
- Streaming: fuboTV - (free trial - NBA League Pass add-on available)
- TV: TNT
- Live stats: GameTracker
- Odds: Trail Blazers -3.5
Odds and Analysis
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Storylines
Thunder: OKC definitely struggled without George in the lineup as it dropped two of the three games that he didn't suit up for. George is one of the top candidates for the Defensive Player of the Year Award and could even be a dark horse for the league's MVP. The All-Star swingman is averaging 28.6 points and knocking down 39.5 percent of his shots from long-range. If George gets back in sync against the Trail Blazers, the Thunder can definitely steal this one on the road.
Trail Blazers: If you take Sunday's game against the Charlotte Hornets out of the equation. CJ McCollum has been playing out of his mind as of late. McCollum has scored at least 35 points in two of the team's last five games while also turning in a 27-point performance against the Memphis Grizzlies in the team's most recent game. The former lottery pick really excels shooting from the perimeter and will really need to keep it going against a strong Thunder team.
Game prediction, pick
This game is very important in terms of the standings in the Western Conference. The line suggests it'll be a close affair, but take the Thunder in a narrow win.
