Portland Trail Blazers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder: NBA Match Preview

Get ready for an exciting NBA matchup between the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder on January 26, 2025.

Jan 26, 2025 - 14:54
 0  10
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder: NBA Match Preview
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

To be precise, for this NBA season, the clocks of basketball lovers are set to January 26, 2025, as the Portland Trail Blazers go up against the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is because it will be held at the Moda Center, which is geographically placed in Portland, Oregon, where all activities for the event will take place. The Thunder go into this with all the favorite tag attached as the Blazers are coming in hot for a scalp.

Read also: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Commanders NFC Championship Game Preview

Recent performances on home soil start to look that they may just sneak this. Team Form and Standings: Tale of Two Teams The Portland Trail Blazers have taken it so easy around this campaign at times and gone on some mini hot streaks of late. This Chauncey Billups team has strung together a season-best three-game winning streak with two in a row against the toughest of opponents. In fact, they had to work for it in a 102-97 win over the Charlotte Hornets the last time out, overcoming an early deficit with some good performances from their most vaunted players in that game as Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant combined to score 49 points in that game. Still, a mountain awaits them-meaning lots to bridge between themselves and playoff contenders because going post-season requires an extra set of miles on the gas burner.

Oklahoma City Thunder On the other side has been one of the impressive sides this season in NBA. They sit pretty atop the western conference standings at 36-8, on pace to take the number one seed for a second straight season. Since their defeat to the Dallas Mavericks, it has been an incredible season for the leading force of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a Thunder team that is deep with great balance; undeniably, this could be one of the hard teams to beat across the league.

Portland Trail Blazers: A Resurgence in the Making?

The Trail Blazers have had quite a rough season so far, and some recent performances may be indicative of their momentum. From the tough beginning of the season to a decent comeback from the adverse beginning, this grueling three-game road trip saw its win at the end come with Charlotte as the Blazers clawed themselves out of an initial deficit in the first quarter to top three and make a statement about the mentally tough ending.

He has been one of the high scorers for Portland this season, and his scoring form has factored into the ongoing winning run which the Blazers are on, and that will be called upon to extend if Portland is to do anything worth talking about against the Thunder. Another one of those valuable contributors on the team goes by the name of Jerami Grant, and he might just get into the action involved in this matchup. Both will have to come up big if Portland is going to outlast the superior firepower of Oklahoma City.

One of the bigger question marks with the Blazers has been their defense. Sure, they have excellent individual defenders-Matisse Thybulle is finally nearing a return-but more often than not, they struggle to string together consistent stops. The slumping Portland outfit is in line to face one of the more high-octane offenses in the league in the Thunder. Against that, Portland is going to have to bring a defense that clicks. It starts and finishes with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-an MVP candidate at this point in the year.
 
It's been the same for the Trail Blazers-to this day-a rash of injuries. Of course, the bigs in the middle of the hard court that are Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III have been on benches for the better part of this campaign lately, though the former will be ready for action soon. Sans Ayton and Williams, that empty hole upfront will just be what the players of Oklahoma City try to expose for the Blazers. But Portland has been a decently up-and-coming team over recent games that catches victories over top teams.

Oklahoma City Thunder: The Team to Beat

The Thunder have been one of the more balanced teams in the NBA this season, and a big reason for that has to do with their star player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

He has been playing elite of late, and the 31-point outing against Dallas in their loss only served to highlight just how good he can be on offense. Of course, he has had big contributors like Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey, among others, in making the Thunder one of the more potent offenses in the league. It does not make the Thunder less dangerous because they lost to the Mavericks; above all, there was great depth and plenty of players in their roster who could show up at any moment. They had a very balanced offense going hand in glove with the great defense that is very hard to break while pulling off sustained victories against different teams both on the road and at home.

The Oklahoma City defense was decent for much of the season-something that would be a needed area on a Blazers team that tends to have bright moments on offense. The Thunder has done a great job in stopping teams from getting that one-run momentum to bury an opponent's team and always keeping things at bay-something it will need against this strong Portland backcourt.

Injuries: The Thunder has been facing just a couple of big injuries.

Ousmane Dieng and Isaiah Joe were ailing and ruled out from the Mavericks match-up. Their duo will consider going into the tonight's fixture against the Blazers questionable. Whereas, another impactful starting, Cason Wallace is doubtful following the fourth-quarter injury in the last outing. While missing a few pieces, the depth of the Thunder can withstand such absences as Jalen Williams and Lu Dort are more than capable of filling in those gaps.

Head-to-Head: Thunder Supremacy

As for the head-to-head between the two teams of late, it has gone all Oklahoma City Thunder. In fact, 13 straight matchups against the Blazers were won by the Thunder dating back to February of 2022. It has been a run of success because of Oklahoma City's superior overall team play, most notably with the star-studded lineup led by Gilgeous-Alexander.

Their previous clash wasn't so different as well, when the Thunder managed easily to win at Paycom Center with 109-99.

In truth, it really highlighted how far apart both these sides are in terms of form and quality, with distinct advantages going the way of the Thunder in almost every single facet of the game. As such, Portland will have to snap this current run of defeats to Oklahoma City if they are to engineer a home win upset. Matchups to Watch

The biggest individual matchup of this encounter is arguably that between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander versus Anfernee Simons. Being among those who have mostly been in excellent form this season, he might probably extend it to the latter part of the next win. Portland will most likely be looking all blabby at this game without Simons sounding well enough to lock the influence of Gilgeous-Alexander off.

Otherwise, the other key matchup is on the interior with Ayton-if he plays-and Grant for the Blazers being called upon to box up the bigs of the Thunder. For what it's worth, OKC has a pretty decent frontcourt. How Portland guards the post dictates a lot in terms of whether or not they can keep the OKC offense from running too wild.

Prediction: Can Trail Blazers Upset the Thunder?

The Portland Trail Blazers have been a little better in the last couple of games, really showing lots of resilience.

But this is an uphill struggle against one of the best teams in the NBA-the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even with all this depth, experience and star power, the favored team will still be the Thunder. The recent formation of the Blazers showed that they are not to be trifled with and, indeed, relishing making noise on their home court. Difficult to bet against the way Oklahoma City has been playing, but if Portland can get the right individual performances and defend well, they should be in it deep enough to make it interesting. However, the Thunder should be a bit too much and extend their winning ways over the Blazers.

Final Prediction: Oklahoma City Thunder 114, Portland Trail Blazers 102