Game 5 Rd 1 Portland vs OKC 7:30pm Tuesday SNW/TNT

[Old Man Game]

Man. What a weekend this is going to be. Potential second round game one, depending on how the Spurs do Thursday. Endgame. Big ass episode of Game of Thrones.

I think I'm legit more excited for GOT than Endgame but it's a really close call.

[Sinobas]

Congrats guys. Our guys acted like a bunch of pompous jerks the entire series. This beatdown was hopefully good for both franchises. I’ll be cheeering for Portland next round.

Even after the series all Paul George could say is that Damian took a bad shot? And he slammed it rather than run the clock out in game 3, which is considered a major insult in the NBA.

[Sinobas]

Hey, maybe Lebron will demand a trade to Portland =)

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Damian is the man but that was a collective team effort to pull back from 15 down and win, it took every contribution from our team from Harkless's dunks and clutch FTs, Aminu's defense and rebounding, Kanter playing through what looks like a really painful shoulder and CJ knocking down his shots, Seth with the defense!

Huge credit to this team never giving up and continuing to trust each other and execute, that mentality comes from the top-down. What a great day to be a Blazer.

[Masterfully]

Damian Badshot Lillard

[Masterfully]

Looks like someone stole his cupcakes

[d-train]

Looks like someone stole his cupcakes

Lol, he's fantasizing about a cupcake. He wants out of the Moda centre before the bakeries close.

[d-train]

Props to everyone still up btw.

I hit the snooze 4 times this morning. I was going to hit it a 5th time, then I thought about Nurk's appearance last night and found the motivation to drag my lazy ass out of bed.

[cjx]

Dame's time and Dame's league, the best point guard in the league, you know what it is, Ripcity Rollin' now!

[Shem]

Watch on YouTube

[d-train]

This is what I'm looking for.

[d-train]

I can't get the image to display

[Wizenheimer]

As far as that shot goes i don't think you count on Dame hitting it. A contested fadeaway 3 from 37' is highly likely to end with a miss so besides double teaming Dame there isn't really much OKC could've done better defensively on that possession. Yeah you could go for the block but in the final seconds you're risking being called for a tacky foul.

normally, that would be true. But Dame was on last night...focused and on fire. When he's like that Logo Three's are a fairly high percentage shot compared to driving into defenders and trying a contested shot, two or three, or risking a turnover.

and the thing is, the world exists in the difference between hitting that shot and missing it. If he would have missed it and OKC won in OT, he would be second-guessed like crazy. But he didn't miss it, it went thru as time expired and all those alternative realities where he missed it just need to bow down to the one reality that exists

[Wizenheimer]

Right now if I had a Blazer Mt. Rushmore, it'd probably only feature these 4 players:

Walton (champion)
Clyde (HOF player during Blazer glory days)
Roy (The catalyst player that ushered out the Jail Blazer teams)
Lillard (Arguably, the most talented basketball player the franchise has had)
Kemp (Because children are the future)

I missed this last night but that walk-off wisecrack was a good one...not as good as Dame's walk-off logo-three, but pretty good

[Masterfully]

Nick Nurse just saw the bad shot

[d-train]

Here it is:

[d-train]

Westbrook gone fishing

[Wizenheimer]

Watch on YouTube

Love CJ's ... oh yeah *wave* moment.

yeah, that was pretty funny...and actually made better by how brief it was because he wanted to get in on hug-the-leader. The angle where you could see the Blazer bench was great too...some of them charged the floor quicker then they ever move on the floor during games. Skal looked like Usain Bolt

The Assistant Coaches reaction around 1:30 is also fantastic.

yeah it is...especially Vanderpool (sp?). There's is other video of Vanderpool tugging on Nurk's beard after the shot around here somewhere. I hope the Blazers don't loose him but he deserves a shot at being a head coach; but please, not for Sarver in Phoenix

another thing that's fun are the angles where you can see Westbrook down in the corner guarding CJ. He was already headed to the OKC locker room while the shot was in the air and just looked over his shoulder at Dame as he shuffled off to his fishing trip

one other thing that is in a few of the angles: Seth is in front of the OKC bench and there is some obvious trash-talking going on before the shot between him and a couple of players, he then gets in the last word before sprinting to join the pile on Dame. At first I was kind of surprised he's get into trash-talking...then I remembered who his brother is

[Wizenheimer]

The GW gets a ton of love, but how **** difficult was the layup to tie it at 115 by Dame??????? Blew by the initial defender and had to split two collapsing help defenders at the rim. **** insane.

I agree. It was insane and spectacular.

Also, I know we're all caught up in Dame's just.. Dameness. And Nurk's appearance. But I want to give some special attention and acknowledgment to these plays:

Chief's and Moe's defense plus rebounding down the wire.
Moe shaking off a terrible 1-6 line for free throws to start the game to hit four crucial, high-pressure ones in the last two minutes.
CJ recovering from a terrible three and a half quarters for some major buckets in the last four minutes.
Seth's amazing steal on George out of OKC's timeout.
Enes playing with damn torn shoulder for 70% of the game, coming up with major rebounds and a critical score near the end.

Chief and Mo were great in all 5 games..the best they played as a tandem the entire year IMO

and I agree on CJ...the bad CJ showed up over the first 42 minutes, the good CJ, the sidekick Dame needs, showed up over the last 6 minutes

Seth was pretty good too, certainly better than Hood (and ET, my gawd the regression)

Kanter has been huge and I have to say his defense hasn't been as bad as his reputation. Maybe OKC just wasn't equipped to exploit him and the next opponent will be. But so far, he's much more that Portland could have hoped for from a late season signing

Blazers don't win is any of those guys don't show up

[BlazersBroncos]

Well its pretty clear that we just witnessed the greatest single game performance by a Trailblazer ever in a playoff game. Not much more to be said.

I know we are in euphoria, but I am looking ahead to the 2nd round now. I truly think we have a great chance against either of these teams. We need our bench to step up, specifically Hood who has been invisible after looking like at least a passable 6th man type early on. I really cant decide who I would rather play. Denver doesn't have experience, and I think Damian and CJ can thoroughly outplay Murray and Harris, but Jokic is just such a tremendously unique player IDK how we would stop him. Collins would get bullied, Kanter/Leonard would get craftily dribble drived by all game. Then for SAS, I fear Pop and their veteran talents but honestly think we match up much better against their good players. DeRozan is a great matchup for Mo, who just played very well against the superior Paul George. Then Aldridge who is basically a C at this point could be defended on postups very well by Kanter and Myers IMO. He doesn't put the ball on the floor as well as Jokic and that's huge. I think we have a better chance against SAS all things considered, but Pop is always going to be the X factor.