OKC Thunder 106 — Portland Trailblazers 90
Combined–Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum scored their usual 44 points or so. Trouble is the rest of the Portland roster only kicked in an additional 46 points as OKC’s Thunder toyed with the Blazers while strolling to an easy 106-90 victory inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
We knew these Blazers weren’t very good on the interior and it showed as OKC scored 48 points in the paint and pretty much did whatever they wanted on this night before the TNT game versus LeBron tomorrow night in Cleveland.
Six different OKC players scored in double figures. Durant 24 points, Waiters 18 points, Westbrook 13 points, Ibaka 13 points, Kanter 12 points, and Adams with an 11 point, 11 rebound night. Which leads into me writing Steven Adams is my No. 1 Star of the Game. He was excellent early and set the tone.
Adams and Ibaka were both active around the rim defensively and OKC had eight blocked shots on the night. Portland was 32-92 from the field which translates into 32.2% on the night. So you could easily say OKC passed this defensive exam against a one dimensional team.
Kevin Durant continued his high level efficient game with 24 points on an 8-14 shooting night from the field.
OKC had 13 assists versus 18 turnovers yet won going away– which to me speaks volumes on the current composition of these Trailblazers.
But to OKC’s credit they handled this game like professionals considering the early season hype with tomorrow night’s game.
The Thunder’s win streak now extends to six games and they’ve improved to 17-8 overall.
When the season started I had four teams circled as genuine contenders for the NBA championship–Golden State, Cleveland, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City in this order of seeding. Tomorrow night we’ll see two of the four playing. We’ll see if LeBron still has Kevin Durant’s number or if something has shifted in their mini personal world order.
Durant has been superb of late. Tomorrow night is a tough mid-term test for Durant, Westbrook, Billy Donovan and the entire Thunder team. Could be a game we still have circled in red when we’re on the cusp of heading into April.
Time to find out some things about this team.
Mike Jackson