Thunder a Four Point Vegas Road Dog at Portland Tonight

As stunning as this is to write I find myself writing it. If the Thunder win at Portland tonight they will be in third place in the West heading back to Oklahoma City after tonight’s game at Portland.

The basketball gods are smiling upon the Thunder. Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs is done for the season. Jimmy Butler of the T Wolves is on the shelf with a knee injury. DeMarcus Cousins of the New Orleans Pelicans is done for the season. The basketball gods have parted the waters for the Thunder to get the No. 3 seed in the West if only the Thunder can muster enough grit to walk through the parted waters.

Is this game at Portland tonight the biggest game of the season so far? Bigger than any of the three games against Golden State and the Christmas night game against Houston?

Well…I think it is for an obvious reason. That reason being the Thunder would be in third place in the West and suddenly showing some semblance of a reason why they could possibly get home court in the first round of the playoffs.

Portland is a four point favorite tonight and riding high with Lillard, McCollum, and Shabazz Napier. The Blazers bring into tonight’s game a three headed monster of guard play and electric three point shooting which doesn’t bode well for the Thunder on paper. This is a game where Andre Roberson would be more than handy. I have no idea if Corey Brewer is playing tonight, but this is a game where if he could go 10-12 minutes it wouldn’t hurt.

Both Westbrook and Paul George played heavy minutes last night. They had to and you know what I applaud Billy Donovan for putting away his Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood philosophy of minutes. Sometimes you just gotta go win a game and last night was one of those times. But if you look at the rest of the Thunder minutes—the rest of the team should be okay. Nobody off the bench played heavy minutes. In fact, Ray Felton played only nine minutes and he’s going to have to play some minutes tonight to help get Russell Westbrook through this game. And if you look at last night’s box you’ll notice Abrines didn’t play his customary 20 minutes of Billy D love. Only ten minutes. Thank you, Billy Donovan. It’s a lovely day in the neighborhood. Carmelo played 31 minutes though, Billy D might want to circle that though.

I love Shabazz Napier from that UConn national championship team and he’s one of my keys tonight. It’s hard to shut down Lillard and McCollum, but if you can limit offensive damage from the rest of the Blazers the Thunder could win this game.

A lot of small lineups tonight. Billy Donovan is going to have roll some shit and coach on the fly like a hockey coach tonight. The Thunder can’t stand around on defense or they’ll get torched from beyond the arc, but by the same token if OKC bears down they should be able to get to the rim against these Blazers.

The Thunder to win this game have to show us some toughness which at times hasn’t been there this season. This is a game where if the Thunder want to change the perceived culture of their season on the second night of a road back to back this is the time to do it. This would be that time. A time to make up for the softness in Oakland last Saturday evening.

On Nov. 5th these two teams played in Portland with the Blazers winning 103-99. Suffice it to say–OKC is going to need to score the ball tonight.

Your first thought is to take the Blazers and give the four. But I’m going too take the Thunder and the four points and hope for a special performance from Paul George, Carmelo, or Steven Adams tonight. One of these three guys needs to be special tonight.

I’m taking the Thunder and the four.