BLAZERS RIP THUNDER AT THE ROSE GARDEN

The Oklahoma City Thunder found themselves ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ on Monday night.  They, along with their third-worst-in-the NBA 7-33 road mark, were on the banks of the Willamette River in the Rose Garden Arena facing the Portland Trailblazers.  The Blazers, of course, have been the hottest team in the NBA during the second half of the season and have made their home court as fearsome as the old Memorial Coliseum next door was during the dominant era of Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter in the 1980’s.  The result was almost preordained:  a 113-83 Blazers victory.

Portland laid into their former regional rivals (OKC was, until this season, the Seattle Supersonics) with a vengeance from the opening horn.  The Blazers led 29-15 after the first quarter and 62-31 at halftime after which they essentially coasted home.  The lopsided advantage allowed Portland to rest their starters and empty the bench for most of the second half,  and the deep and talented Blazers never led the Thunder cut into their 30+ point lead by more than a few.

Travis Outlaw, who started in place of flu stricken Nicolas Batum, led the Blazers with 21 points with Brandon Roy right behind him with 20.  Greg Oden just missed a ‘double/double’ with 16 points and 9 rebounds, while Rudy Fernandez (14) and Channing Frye (11) rounded out the Blazers’ double digit scorers.  Reserve Earl Watson paced Oklahoma City with 16 points with Russell Westbrook adding 15.  Nenad Krstic (11) and Kevin Durrant (10) also posted double digit totals for the Thunder.

Unlike many of the NBA’s playoff bound squads, Portland’s final game is of potentially great significance.  The Blazers are tied with Houston and San Antonio with identical 53-28 records, and they’re all one game behind second place Denver.   As luck would have it, they’ll play the Nuggets in their final regular season game on Wednesday night in Portland.  Depending on how everything shakes out, Portland could finish as high as 2^nd in the Western Conference or as low as 5^th.  Despite the many possible scenarios, Blazer superstar guard Brandon Roy summed up the situation very succinctly:

"One game away. Lots of tiebreakers. We'll see what happens. We're just excited about going to the playoffs.”

Portland coach Nate McMillan didn’t add much to Roy’s mantra:

"It's all about looking forward to the next game now. We'll come to play and finish the season strong."

Like Portland, Denver has been playing excellent basketball down the stretch.  The Nuggets and Blazers will enter Wednesday night’s contest having won nine of their last ten overall.  The Thunder will head to Los Angeles to finish out their season with a Wednesday night game against another NBA bottom feeder, the LA Clippers.