Oklahoma City @ Portland preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 7, 2017 ) Portland 126, Oklahoma City 121

The Oklahoma City Thunder looked like they had figured out how to blend their superstars on both ends of the court in a pair of easy wins on the road, but a home loss to the Boston Celtics on Friday showed that there is still work to be done. The Thunder will try to bounce back and earn their third win in four games when they visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.

Oklahoma City had Boston on the ropes before squandering an 18-point lead in the 101-94 loss, but they appeared unconcerned after the game. "It's good to struggle now, this is our first year together," Thunder forward Paul George told reporters. "This is a long run, we'll be fine. We're starting to shoot it well, we're starting to find some rhythm. We're starting to figure out how to attack and be aggressive. ... we'll be totally fine." The Trail Blazers dropped two straight and needed a late 3-pointer from Damian Lillard on Thursday to escape with a 113-110 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers. “It’s good to get a close game win," Portland head coach Terry Stotts told reporters. “We need that, especially on the heels of not only last night but some of the other games. Dame’s shot was huge. He really carried us in the second half."

TV: 9 p.m. ET, FS Oklahoma, NBCS Northwest (Portland)

ABOUT THE THUNDER (4-4): Blending George, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony was going to result in some ups and downs, and Oklahoma City rode that roller coaster with a great first half on Friday followed by a terrible second half. “We took the foot off the gas a little bit,” Anthony told reporters after the contest. “We didn’t put a full game together tonight." Anthony went 1-of-12 from the field in the second half and finished with a season-low 10 points - the second straight game he failed to score at least 20 points after hitting the mark in each of the first six contests.

ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (5-4): Portland has been searching for an inside scorer to compliment Lillard and CJ McCollum in the backcourt since LaMarcus Aldridge left, and center Jusuf Nurkic is trying to prove he can be that compliment. Nurkic scored 28 points on 12-of-20 shooting in Thursday's win and is averaging 15 points and 7.8 rebounds. "His offense was really good as far as finishing around the basket," Stotts told reporters of Nurkic after Thursday's win. "I thought our guards did a nice job of finding him on the rolls, on pick and rolls, the passes that they made to him in the lane made his job easier. ... It was good for him to have a night like that where he was finishing around the basket."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Trail Blazers PF Al-Farouq Aminu (ankle) sat out Friday and will likely miss the next two-to-three weeks.

2. Anthony grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds on Friday to record his second double-double.

3. Portland took three of the last four and five of seven in the series.

PREDICTION: Thunder 108, Trail Blazers 102