Thunder at Blazers: Pregame Primer
vs. 
Ok. City Thunder (29-21, 14-11 road) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (30-23, 15-10 home)
TV: NBATV (Cox 256, 726 HD); FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 9:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.2 (18th), Blazers – 110.7 (6th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.1 (6th), Blazers – 108.0 (18th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.4 (17th), Blazers – 87.4 (30th)
View from the enemy: Portland Roundball Society
Let me tell you right now, you should be amped for this game. Maybe more than any game thus far. Yes, right now, Oklahoma City is in a playoff battle with Portland. Yes, this is a division foe. And yes, this is the Thunder’s supposed “rival”. But more than anything, for whatever reason, Portland fans tend to dislike the Thunder. Maybe it’s the Pacific Northwest connection or the Oden-Durant thing, but Blazer fans mostly don’t enjoy OKC. And that’s what makes these games fun.
(I’ll admit though, I really like the Blazers. I’ve admitted this before, so no need to heap more love on them.) And this one’s for the taking. No Brandon Roy. No Greg Oden. No Joel Pryzbilla. No Travis Outlaw. Portland has one of the best homecourt advantages in the league, but that doesn’t mean much to this Thunder team. The thing that frightens me a bit are the matchups (or one matchup), but we’ll get there in a second.
Portland coming in: The Blazers last played on Saturday, so they’re rested. They lost that game to the Lakers without Kobe. They’re 2-2 in their last four and 4-6 in their last 10.
THE MATCHUPS
Durant has averaged 14.8 points on 28.6 percent shooting over the last four games against Portland. Nic Batum and Martell Webster have done excellent jobs against KD. And with Batum healthy, it’s possible he will be inserted into the starting lineup to check Durant. So if you’re worried about KD’s 24-game streak, you may knaw off your fingernails tonight.
Where OKC can make headway is with its bench and supporting pieces. Russell Westbrook against Jerryd Bayless will be a nice match, but with the way Russ is playing, you’ve got to like that one for OKC. Thabo will either start on Bayless or Andre Miller and that’s a good match for the Thunder because both guys are being relied upon to score right now. But on the inside, Jeff Green just can’t handle LaMarcus Aldridge. He’s traditionaly torched the Thunder. He left the last game early, but scored six quick points and looked to be a nightmare. After looking back, really this is the only matchup that scares me. Of course Juwan Howard isn’t wonderful, but he’s physical and done a nice job on the post for Portland.
Overall, this one will come down to containing Aldridge, locking down on whoever decides to take the secondary scoring load for Portland (Webster, Miller, Bayless) and the Thunder bench outplaying the Blazer bench. Sounds easy fellas. Get it done.
The Thunder’s riding a five-game winning streak and could stretch it to a season-high six with a win. Plus, that would be win No. 30 and edge the Thunder up the Western ranks. It truly a huge game. It’s NBATV’s Fan Night game and if you’re a fan of the NBA, this is absolutely must-see basketball. But the Rose Garden is a tough place to win and OKC has lost four straight to the Blazers. I’m cautiously psyched.
Tip at 9:00 CST. Go Streak.
Fantastic win.. James Harden gets game ball for his single handed 11-0 run to take this game from PDX.. Russ / KD came back in the fourth and made it work after the gutsy benching by Brooks.
Is it the first 6 wins in the row Thunder made!?
We just jumped over the Spurs!!
@Dylan
It was beautiful wasn’t it?
I don’t know what’s up with games like this. I don’t feel like we won. We held them to a season low, but I wasn’t too impressed with the defense until the fourth quarter. We won the game, but I really hated our offense for most of it. I’m so happy we got out of there with this win. Let’s take a break. Become best friends again. Dominate every facet of all star weekend and continue this winning streak.
We are 30-21……30 and 21!!!!!!
@clarkem
Blazers kind of force games like this.. slow pace, grind it out.. it was the same way when we first played them.
I definitley took issue with the offense for most of the game but they came through when it mattered.
We had 17 steals in this game..
Biggest win in the short history of the Thunder. Just so huge in the standings, so huge going into the break, so huge in terms of confidence, so huge to get over the hump in Portland. Good times.
I’m so used to being overtly and overly optimistic it feels weird feeling like this after a win lol.
Oh and for the record denver just smashed dallas tonight.
you guys wanna see an absolutely hilarious exchange from another board?
someone says this:
“With every jumper Durant hits you gotta know Portland fans are wondering what could have been.”
then a blazer fan responds with this:
“Not in any way, shape, or form”
LMFAO
felt like 71
@clarkem
That fourth quarter was good as I can possibly imagine this team playing. Yes, it was a sloppy middle 2 quarters, but we never let them get away and closed out the game beautifully.
Jimbo basically won this for us with this 13 pt spree in the 4th
ok, that’s hyperbole…
but not much
@DON
I’m with you man, I really hate the Blazers fans!
Yeah I’m ecstatic with the win. It was huge. I think it just really got to me that our team with such good chemistry finally had a slip up. Oh well it’s better now.
ok so we exploded in the 4th Q instead of the 3rd…
good enough!
would anyone have guessed the final as low-scoring as it was?
hey, at least we got more than 66 pts (yikes Houston)
I would definitely say that the key to the win wasn’t the defense on LA but on Steve Blake and Rudy Fernandez. Both were shut out. That was huge for us. It forced Portland into leaning entirely on Miller and Aldridge.
@GAP
Yeah, and look at these comments from that board also….
“Durant didnt kill us, Harden did with that 13-0 run by himself. Durants really good, but i still take Oden over him, like the dude above said.”
^^^ I mean are you freaking kidding me?
poor Portland…
what did they have, about 2,478 turnovers?
we be slappin!
Kevin and Jeff win at Portland for the first time!
More blazer fan comments…
“The Blazers are still on a better track to a championship, and with a healthy team next season, I like the combo of Roy/Oden better than I do Roy/Durant”
first 6 game win streak ever!!
(for the Thunder, not counting the previous whatchamacallits)
How long before Portland gives up the whole, “I’d still pick Oden over Durant today” thing? I mean, no one in their right mind would pick Oden over Durant today. It’s not so crazy to have whiffed on a draft pick. You don’t see Detroit fans still saying “I’d still take Darko over Melo today.” Oden isn’t as bad as Darko, but they’ve both contributed about the same in their careers, Darko from lack of skill, Oden from glass knees/ankles.
30-21 baby!!!!!!!!!
30 wins before all-star break
+9 games over .500
#6 in the Western conf.
(what are the characters for the ‘eyes-popping-out and screaming because I’m so happy’ smiley?)
This goes out to all the portland fans F all u Durant haters
KD went over 5000 career points
anyone know the exact figure?
The Sonics would have taken Oden over Durant also, every team would have. I think Oden v. Durant in that context is silly, people make a big deal because it’s Portland and Sam Bowie (who was much more of a red flag than Oden..), etc. No team would have taken Durant over Oden, teams are going to take the big man prospect every time (Darko over Carmelo, Olowakandi over everyone, etc. etc.).
I think it’s stupid for PDX fans to think that Oden is better than Durant or expect that he will be at this point, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the decision since if our places were swapped Sonics would have 100% taken Oden.
actually not that great of a game for Kevin…
he only got 33 pts and 11 rebounds
better luck next time kid!
@justin
That’s not what Portland fans are arguing however. If they were simply saying, “Oden was still the right pick at the time,” then all you could say back is, “Yeah.” And I’m not sure every team would have picked Oden. He was certainly the favored player with most teams, but Durant really was good enough to overtake him with some GMs, even back then.
The real issue is badmouthing Durant now despite the fact that there is absolutely no argument to make stating Oden is or will be better.
KD gets his 25th straight game with 25+ points
(re-read the line above, several times if necessary, for maximum effect)
*FIST PUMP*
LMAO, I know right
Hopefully KD doesn’t get too dejected after this miserable 33 and 11 performance and he can bounce back from it mentally
man, midway through the 4th quarter when harden made another 3…i got chills =)
@Keith
Yeah that’s dumb and kind of silly.. but can you really blame them? It’s got to sting..
that Krazy Kevin…
do you get the feeling that if opposing teams handcuffed him, bound his feet, and put a hippo on his head, that he’d still find a way get at least 25 points?
keep drinking that haterade NBA… Thunder are for realll
@Keith
A LOT of Blazers fans say that from this point going forward they would rather have Oden over Durant.
@Sammy
That’s completely demented. Oden has screws and duct tape holding together his knee right now, his prognosis can’t possibly be 100%.