With the season series tied at one a piece, the Thunder look to take the advantage by beating the Trail Blazers at home. Both games so far have been won at home with OKC winning the first match up 102-93 while Portland took the second 106-92.
The Blazers are hot right now winning each of their last three games by 20 points. They currently sit at 6th in the West but are within striking distance of 2nd. Home court advantage in the playoff would go a long way as they are currenly one of ten teams that only have single digit losses at home. They also have the second worst road record of the playoff teams in the West.
A big difference in the first two match ups between the teams other than locale was the play of Greg Oden. A lot of the hype surrounding the match up between the two teams was the face off between the #1 and #2 drafted players from 2007. Oden scored a mere 4 points in the first match up but rebounded with 16 in Portland's win. Oden has since be demoted to backup center for the Trail Blazers partially killing the hype. Durant outscored his counterpart in both match ups, but was much more impressive in OKC's win scoring 31 compared to the 20 in the loss.
A win tonight by the Thunder and a loss by Minnesota on the road in Utah would give the Thunder a 1.5 game lead over the Timberwolves for 4th in the Northwest. The Wolves still have games against the bottom three from the Pacific (Clippers, Warriors, and Kings) which are all winnable games for them. Improving to the 1.5 game lead now will be key for getting OKC some seperation in the race for fourth.
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