Thunder at Trail Blazers
THE STORY: The Portland Trail Blazers continue to jockey for playoff position when the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder visit Friday night. The Blazers, 26-10 at home, are tied with New Orleans (43-32) for the sixth spot, a game clear of eighth-place Memphis (42-33) and 2 ½ back of Denver (45-29) for fifth.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSOK, CSNW
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (43-32): Portland just completed a 1-2 road trip, including a 99-90 loss to the Thunder, and are starting a three-game homestand that will also include Dallas and Golden State. Five of the Blazers’ seven remaining games are at home. Portland lost an 11-point lead and a critical 95-91 game at New Orleans on Wednesday that gave the Hornets the tiebreaker. LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 points and 15 rebounds and Andre Miller tallied 19 points but committed a costly turnover on a drive to the hoop with 13 seconds left.
ABOUT THE THUNDER (50-24): Oklahoma City sits comfortably in the fourth spot and would have to suffer a total collapse to lose homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. That seems unlikely since the Thunder have won five straight and 11 of 12, reaching 50 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since the franchise was located in Seattle and rattled off five straight seasons starting in 1992-93. Kevin Durant and James Harden scored 22 points each and helped the Thunder pull away from Phoenix Suns in the fourth quarter for a 116-98 victory Wednesday.
WHO’S HOT/WHO’S NOT: The Thunder are 8-1 with center Kendrick Perkins in the starting lineup, allowing teams just over 94 points a game and 43-percent shooting. Harden is averaging 17.7 points a game since the trade that sent Jeff Green to the Celtics, an increase from his 10.5 average prior to the trade. In his last three games, Blazers forward Nicolas Batum has scored 18 points on 4-of-18 shooting with one assist and six turnovers.
KEY STATISTIC: Portland is 30-3 when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent, however one of the losses came to New Orleans on Wednesday.
SEASON SERIES: Oklahoma City has won all three games, two by a combined three points back in November and 99-90 last Sunday. Durant scored 28 to lead the way in the first game, Westbrook tallied 36 in the middle contest and 28 last Sunday to overcome 40 points from Gerald Wallace. Aldridge averaged 17.3 points but just 5.3 rebounds in 43 minutes per game in the first three games.
KEY INJURIES: OKLAHOMA CITY: F Nick Collison (ankle). PORTLAND: F Gerald Wallace (head).
LAST WORD: “It's still in our hands. We know what we need to do. Every game is important. We don't have the tiebreaker against (the Hornets), but we do against some other...” - Blazers coach Nate McMillan.