NBA looking ahead: Oklahoma City at Portland

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Reggie Jackson, left, puts up a shot in front of Portland Trail Blazers center Robin Lopez during a game on Jan. 21. The two teams meet again Tuesday in a Western Conference showdown.

By Ben Bolch

Feb. 8, 2014 4:19 PM PT

Looking ahead

OKLAHOMA CITY AT PORTLAND, 7 p.m. PST Tuesday. TV: NBA TV.

Neil Olshey can never get enough credit. The Mike Dunleavy protégé turned the Clippers into big winners and now has built the Portland Trail Blazers into a Western Conference power in only his second season as the team’s general manager. New additions Robin Lopez and Mo Williams have bolstered the core of LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard and Nicolas Batum while making Portland one of the NBA’s breakthrough teams. The Trail Blazers have defeated Northwest Division rival Oklahoma City in two of their three meetings this season.

ben.bolch@latimes.comolch@latimes.com”>ben.bolch@latimes.com

More to Read

Sports

Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

NBA looking ahead: Oklahoma City at Portland

More to Read

More From the Los Angeles Times