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Friday night’s Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Portland Trail Blazers line was coming in at -3 in favor of the home team with a total of 190.5 at Sportsbook.com.
The Thunder have been getting the better of Portland all season, but the Blazers get a chance to avoid the season sweep at home on Friday night.
The teams met on Sunday in Oklahoma City, with the Thunder pretty much controlling the game thanks to superior shooting. The Blazers attacked to the point that they drew 26 fouls while committing only 16, but Portland shot only 2-for-12 from three and 18-for-24 from the line, while the Thunder were 9-of-24 from behind the arc and 26-for-29 at the FT line in a 99-90 Oklahoma City win.
Gerald Wallace was a stud in that game. Portland’s forward went for 40 points on 16-of-28 shooting from the field. But he got his bell rung in Wednesday night’s loss to New Orleans, getting hit so hard on a pick that he didn’t come out with the team in the second half. He eventually returned to the game, but may be going at less than 100 percent Friday night.
Portland is once again playing well at the Rose Garden. The Blazers have won six in a row SU and five of six ATS. However, it should be noted that four of those wins came against Eastern Conference foes (Washington, Charlotte, Cleveland and Philadelphia) and they beat a Tim Duncan-less San Antonio team by only two last Friday night.
Meanwhile, the Thunder have been true road warriors of late. They went 6-1 SU and ATS on the road in March, including an impressive 11-point win in Miami on March 16. They went to Phoenix on Wednesday night and pounded the Suns, 116-98. Oklahoma City shot 53.8% from the field in that game, and their bench, led by James Harden (22 points on 7-of-9 FG in Phoenix) continued to give them an edge. Key members of Oklahoma City’s bench put up big plus/minus numbers in March: Harden (+9.1 per game) and Nick Collison (+8.9). The Blazers’ key reserves -- Marcus Camby (+2.8 in eight games off the bench), Rudy Fernandez (+1.1), Brandon Roy (+0.9) -- haven’t been nearly as effective.
Their last meeting in Portland was a thriller, with the Thunder mounting a fourth-quarter comeback and Serge Ibaka tipping in a miss with 10 seconds left to force overtime. Oklahoma City went on to win 107-106 in OT.
