The Oklahoma City Thunder aim to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers for the second time this week when they visit the Pacific Northwest on Friday night.
Oklahoma City trailed by as many as 18 points on Monday in a 98-81 home win over the Trail Blazers. The Thunder outscored Portland 59-34 in the second half.
Oklahoma City followed that triumph with a 120-114 overtime victory at the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. The two wins follow a stretch in which the Thunder dropped 12 of 13 games.
It also represents the first time Oklahoma City has won back-to-back contests since a three-game winning streak from Dec. 18-22.
The Thunder are without their top player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (ankle), but third-year pro Luguentz Dort is capably filling the go-to scoring role.
Dort scored 14 consecutive Oklahoma City points in overtime against the Mavericks to cap a 30-point effort. He is averaging 25 points over the past three games.
“I just felt like I had to step up,” Dort said of the solo spurt against Dallas. “The whole team, we played together and we had a good game. I felt like at the end, someone had to make plays and I felt like I had to hit some big shots.”
Dort matched his season best of six 3-pointers while also doing displaying his typical hustle on the defensive end.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to him because of the job he does on both ends of the floor,” Thunder rookie Josh Giddey said of Dort. “He has to chase around the best guy every night for 40 minutes and then offensively what he does for us is huge.”
Rookie Tre Mann added a career-best 29 points for the Thunder.
In the recent win over Portland, Dort scored a team-high 18 points. CJ McCollum led the Trail Blazers with 21.
Portland is opening a five-game homestand after playing 10 of its previous 12 games on the road. The Trail Blazers have dropped five of their past six games.
Portland completed a 1-3 road excursion on Wednesday with a 99-94 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Not a good (trip) for us,” Trail Blazers swingman Norman Powell said. “So, (we’ve) got to tighten up when we get home, we have a nice homestand, get back to our beds, get back, settle, figure it out and hopefully pick up some much-needed wins on the home floor.”
Powell scored 30 points against the Lakers for his second-highest output of the season. He also matched his season best of five 3-pointers.
Portland certainly relishes another chance at the Thunder as Monday’s game ended with the club’s lowest-scoring output of the season.
After a 31-point first quarter, the Trail Blazers scored 16, 14 and 20 points in the ensuing periods. Portland finished a dreadful 7 of 38 (18.4 percent) from 3-point range.
“For the most part, this is one of those games where you couldn’t make a shot,” Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said afterward. “Eighty-one points — anybody in the league scores 81 points, there’s no way you’re going to have a chance to win the game. But I thought we played the right way. Just couldn’t make them.”
Of course, Portland has been without the star of the offense, Damian Lillard (abdomen), for the past 17 games. Larry Nance Jr. (knee) is listed as questionable. He has missed the past 15 games.
