Thunder at Trail Blazers
The Oklahoma City Thunder aim to halt an eight-game losing streak in Portland when they visit the Trail Blazers on Friday. The Thunder haven't prevailed in Portland since Feb. 11, 2014, and have also lost the last six overall meetings.
Oklahoma City arrives in the Pacific Northwest with three wins in its last four games after star forward Paul George scored 37 points in Wednesday's 107-100 road victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. George topped 20 points in each of his past 12 games and is averaging 32.1 points during the stretch. Portland hasn't played since posting a 113-108 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday in a contest it led by 14 at halftime before blowing the advantage and later dominating the overtime. "The effort it took to come back and win in overtime, I was really impressed with our guys," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts told reporters. "To make a comeback like that you have to be good at both ends, and we were."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, FS Oklahoma, NBCS Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE THUNDER (24-13): Star point guard Russell Westbrook was a horrific 3-of-20 shooting against the Lakers but it didn't prevent him recording his 115th career triple-double with 14 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. "He does so much more stuff than score the ball," George told reporters of Westbrook. "It's the reason why we're winning when he's not shooting well. It's because he does so much that sometimes doesn't even show up on the stat sheet. He just makes winning plays." Westbrook shot 30 percent or worse in four of the past seven games with the showing against the Lakers being one of three during the stretch in which he made fewer than 20 percent of his attempts.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (22-16): Center Jusuf Nurkic collected a career-best 23 rebounds in the victory over Sacramento and also had 24 points, seven assists, five blocked shots and five steals. "Without my team, I couldn't do that," Nurkic told reporters. "They help me out, I help them. I'm just glad we win." Nurkic is enjoying a solid four-game run in which he is averaging 21.5 points, 13 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.8 steals while shooting 56.6 percent from the field.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Trail Blazers won last season's four meetings by an average of 6.5 points.
2. Oklahoma City C Steven Adams recorded three double-doubles over the past four games.
3. Portland PG Damian Lillard scored 25 points against Sacramento for his eighth 20-point performance in the past 10 games.