Game 1 Rd 1 Portland vs OKC 12:30pm Sunday KATU

[JasonStern]

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Mission accomplished

[Dadouv47]

I agree that Collins didn't play well today. The good news is that at least Stotts decided to not play Leonard in the second half, and he was also horrific.

So obviously the odds are extremely low that we'll ever have another nineteen point lead in this series again.

Despite this, I'm cautiously optimistic about being able to steal this series.

1. People will say OKC almost won despite playing terribly, but like GreenR has pointed out.. we didn't play particularly well either. Yes, OKC played some great defense for three quarters of the game. No denying it. But we also missed a lot of open shots too. We had a number of unforced turnovers from sloppy decisions. Somehow, we still won. We never panicked even when the lead got down to one.

2. Paul George caught fire shooting near the end, so if that keeps up I don't think we'll win. But if he continues to struggle with his shoulder (please note, OKC fans, not hoping for his injury to remain, only making an observation) we have a real shot.

3. Something to keep an eye on is how bad Westbrook's tweaked knee ends up being.

4. Hopefully Stotts never, ever, ever, ever, ever goes back to the five man bench unit in the playoffs out there at the same time and always keeps one of Dame and CJ in.

5. We have hope! I think that's all of us ever wanted after Nurk got injured, so anything else is kind of a blessing in surprise!

Pretty good objective post. Congrats to your team for the win (even if I'm still pissed as ****)

I'm also particularly disappointed because indeed you guys didn't play/shoot well either. I think if we had just a ''bad'' shooting night it would have been enough to win that game.

I also think it's a bad sign for us to lose when Westbrook plays well (we usually win when it's the case). He was playing very high BBIQ and the game was ''close'' because of him.

I personally think Kanter's impact was overrated. You guys made a great defensive adjustment on the interior and the fact that we couldn't hit a 3 helped you in that aspect. Kanter allows your team to have more 2nd chance opportunities though.

I guess it will come down to if we are able to shoot at a relatively high level (Paul George is our only scorer so we will need him ) or keep choking. We also need our role players like Grant or Ferguson to hit their shots.

I personally think that CJ is the X factor for your team. We all know Lillard is going to play well and hit crazy shots but Westbrook defended relatively well on him. CJ was wide open every time and Ferguson/Schroeder made a terrible defensive job on him (we were lucky he had a bad shooting night).

Hope we will get a nice revenge tomorrow but not confident at all about that (feel like it's going to be very difficult for a team to win on the road )

[bigdavid]

Interesting...What I saw last night we were playing like this was a regular season game, however OKC was playing playoff basketball. When Westbrook charged countless times to the hoop he was untouched. In playoff basketball he should have been knocked down. How many times after that would he charge to the rim. Of course he would be shooting fouls but his untouched charge to the rim would have been stopped.

Wetbook is only a 66% foul shooter. I would rather see him shoot 2 fouls then a free run to the rim for a layup.After been hard fouled he might reconsider his shots.He is a tough player but you saw what happened to Dame after taking a hard foul it took him 5 to 10 minutes to fully recover. This is PLAYOFF basketball!!

[Sinobas]

Interesting...What I saw last night we were playing like this was a regular season game, however OKC was playing playoff basketball. When Westbrook charged countless times to the hoop he was untouched. In playoff basketball he should have been knocked down. How many times after that would he charge to the rim. Of course he would be shooting fouls but his untouched charge to the rim would have been stopped.

Wetbook is only a 66% foul shooter. I would rather see him shoot 2 fouls then a free run to the rim for a layup.After been hard fouled he might reconsider his shots.He is a tough player but you saw what happened to Dame after taking a hard foul it took him 5 to 10 minutes to fully recover. This is PLAYOFF basketball!!

I don't agree, I think Portland brought the energy. But Kanter is notoriously bad at defending the P&R.

[Fitz303]

A little late to the party on this one but, hell of a game. Decided to go to my first playoff game in about 5 years. Worth every penny. Sat right behind the Thunder bench and without fail, Russ was getting into it with a fan by the bench right after he was first subbed out in the first quarter.

Neither team shot great in the end, but that first quarter was something. Hopefully the role players bring a little more to the table in this next one though. However, Moe was huge.

well, I guess getting 2 quarters of the good Dame is enough to get a win, especially when Enes is playing like Moses Malone

Portland is going to need more than 18 points from the bench. Harkless only scored 2 points, but his defense on PG set a tone

and Fitz, if you're reading: this game is why you play Kanter at C and not Zach. Kanter was MVP of the game; Zach was horrible

I completely agree that Kanter has been solid as the starting Center, and have said as much in prior game threads. He was absolute trash off the bench, but has been much better as a starter. Having Moe and Aminu as engaged around the rim as they have been has certainly helped mask Kanter's issues as well. However, this game was exactly why I so badly wanted the Blazers to play for the 3 seed, and not the 4. The Thunder don't have someone who can really make Kanter pay on defense. The Thunder were force feeding Steven Adams early and that played right into the Blazers hand. Steven Adams is not that kind of player. Playing against Gobert would have been awful. As for Collins, I agree. He was brutal that game. Granted, playing alongside Meyers (in the 1st half anyway) rarely helps anyone. It just seemed like he was a little overwhelmed in the moment. Hopefully he turns it up the next game, because I agree, the team suffered when he was out there.

[Fitz303]

Oh and the Blazers transition D, especially on Westbrook, was AWFUL. If there's one major adjustment to be made it's to slow the downhill attack that the Thunder was shoving down the Blazers throat.