The Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder have already faced off once throughout the 2013-14 NBA season, and while Portland won Round 1, it\u2019s OKC with home-court advantage this time around. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Portland at Oklahoma City<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Entering this matchup, the Blazers and Thunder are coming off of different types of performances. Portland lost in a close matchup to the New Orleans Pelicans, while the Thunder dominated the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n Both teams are fighting for supremacy in the Western Conference, and both teams will face off on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n The Portland Trail Blazers have taken down top-quality teams left and right this season\u2014including the Oklahoma City Thunder\u2014but what they haven\u2019t done is beat a true contender on the road. They\u2019ll have that opportunity on Tuesday, but it won\u2019t come easy against one of the best teams in the Association.<\/p>\n At the point guard position, Damian Lillard will have the luxury of not having to guard Russell Westbrook. The Thunder\u2019s floor general is out following successful knee surgery, which means Lillard will have plenty of energy to thrive on offense.<\/p>\n As fresh as Lillard\u2019s legs should be late in the game, expect this one to be a big-time LaMarcus Aldridge performance. The Blazers\u2019 big man has historically played well against OKC, and he\u2019ll look to keep that trend going in this one. The Portland Trail Blazers have surprised everybody throughout the 2013-14 NBA season, but you can say the same thing about the Oklahoma City Thunder. Everybody knew they would be a contender, but many questioned how well they could play without Russell Westbrook. The point guard made an early return, but he\u2019s once again out, leaving Kevin Durant to lead the way.<\/p>\n In this one, the Thunder will look to swarm both Aldridge and Lillard. Chances are, they won\u2019t be able to stop every three-point shooter on the Blazers\u2019 roster, but if they can contain the top-two scorers, they\u2019ll be in good shape.<\/p>\n Look for players like Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb to step up big. Portland doesn\u2019t have anyone who can truly stop Durant, but the superstar forward has admitted that he needs solid performances out of his role players to win moving forward.<\/p>\n If Durant\u2019s teammates step up, look for OKC to walk away with a convincing win. Not many teams are as tough as the Thunder at home, and if Durant gets what he wants\u2014help from his teammates\u2014not even the surprising Trail Blazers can take them down at Chesapeake Energy Arena.<\/p>\n Prediction: Oklahoma City 111 \u2013 Portland 100<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PDX vs OKC NBA Picks The Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder have already faced off once throughout the 2013-14 NBA season, and while Portland won Round 1, it\u2019s OKC with home-court advantage this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":68047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[922,40659,8471,8911,60921,30501,60922,47567,47570,4398,50143,47572],"class_list":["post-71243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-okc","tag-okc-thunder","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-portland","tag-portland-at-oklahoma-city","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portland-trail-blazers-vs-okc-thunder","tag-portland-trail-blazers-vs-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-portland-vs-oklahoma-city","tag-thunder","tag-trail-blazers","tag-trail-blazers-vs-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71244,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71243\/revisions\/71244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n When: 8:00 PM ET, Tuesday, December 31, 2013<\/strong>
\n Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma<\/strong>
\n Spread: OKC -5.5<\/strong>
\n Over\/Under: 213.5<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nPortland<\/h3>\n
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\nDefensively, Portland must choose one of two strategies: Hope to contain Kevin Durant, or hope to contain everyone else. Chances are, no one on the roster can stop Durant, meaning holding the role players to modest performances will be a huge indicator of how well they perform on the road.<\/p>\nOklahoma City Thunder<\/h3>\n