NBA 2018/19: 3 Talking Points From the Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trail Blazers match

#2 The Streak is over

The Trail Blazers seemed to have the Thunder’s number because its actually two winning streaks they had against their rivals

The Portland Trail Blazers came into this game having won six straight matches against their divisional and Western Conference rivals the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The streak includes victories in all four matches these two teams played against each other last year.

The Trail Blazers seemed to have the Thunder’s number because its actually two winning streaks they had against their rivals. Not only had they won six straight against OKC but they had not lost to OKC since 2014 in Portland.

With both teams finding themselves in the top five in playoff rankings out west this season, this contest was a prize fight of sorts among basketball games.

The Thunder came into this game with a record of 24-13 and in secondnd overall in the Western Conference. The Trail Blazers were fifth with a record of 22-16. Both teams came into this contest on two-game winning streaks.

Tonight’s game saw the Trail Blazers start a new one-game losing streak and their dominance over the Thunder has ended for the moment as OKC won in Portland for the first time since 2014.

The 111-109 victory is also the first time in seven games overall against the Trail Blazers that the Thunder are the winners.

It seems a little odd that the schedule makers for the NBA did not have these two divisional rivals meet before now when the NBA season is nearly half over in terms of games played.

However, with teams sure to get serious about playoff positioning, the January 22nd, February 11th and March 3rd, 2019 matchups between these potential playoff-bound teams become very important to playoff seeding.