Thunder-Trail Blazers Preview
The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise hasn't won 50 games in five seasons. But at this point, that is a secondary concern for the Thunder.
After falling into eighth place in the Western Conference, the Thunder look to even the season series with the surging Portland Trail Blazers, who could be without leading scorer Brandon Roy.
Trying for the franchise's first 50-win season since the Seattle SuperSonics went 52-30 in 2004-05 and maintaining a one-game lead for the sixth seed, Oklahoma City (49-31) fell 120-117 at lowly Golden State on Sunday despite leading by as many as 20 points in the first half.
"When you lose a game like this, especially in the Western Conference, it can drop you two to three spots," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks, whose team has lost three of four.
The loss dropped the Thunder into a tie with Portland (49-31) and San Antonio, but those teams hold the tiebreaker.
"When the playoff seeding takes shape I hope we don't look back at this game as the one that got away and affected us," Kevin Durant said after scoring 40 points with 10 rebounds Sunday. "We all know the Western Conference is tough and we need to make sure we take care of games like this. It's a tough loss for us."
If the Spurs defeat Western Conference-worst Minnesota on Monday and Oklahoma City loses to the Trail Blazers, the Thunder will be locked into the eighth seed and open the postseason against the defending champion Lakers.
While a victory Monday could help Oklahoma City move away from that undesirable scenario, Portland helped itself avoid that matchup with a 91-88 win at the Lakers on Sunday.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 points and 11 rebounds, Marcus Camby scored 10 points with 17 boards and Martell Webster hit three free throws with 3.1 seconds left as the Trail Blazers, winners of 17 of 22, were victorious with Roy playing just 11 minutes due to a sore knee.
"We're hoping that it's not too serious," said coach Nate McMillan of Roy, who is scoring a team-high 21.5 points per game. "We decided to hold him (out of) the second half and get some X-rays, and we'll look at him again (Monday)."
With Roy sidelined with a hamstring injury, the host Trail Blazers lost 89-77 in the Thunder's last visit to the Rose Garden on Feb. 9.
Durant, the league's leading scorer with 30.1 points per game, had 33 with 11 rebounds in that matchup.
He averaged just 22.5 on 26.3 percent shooting in two home losses to Portland this season.
Oklahoma City will try to avoid its first three-game road losing streak since Dec. 14-22.
The Trail Blazers need one victory for back-to-back 50-win seasons for the first time since 1999-2001.
