Blazers Get Their First Win on the Road

Tonight the Blazers got their first win on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder. After two rough losses to Denver and then Houston, tonight's game was a big relief for the Blazers and the fans. It wasn't anywhere near a perfect game but the Blazers were able to stay strong and come away with a win.

In my previous post, this morning, you may recall that I mentioned that a key to the game tonight would be shutting down Kevin Durant...well, we did that and then some! Durant came out of this game with only 16 points and 5 rebounds. Martell Webster guarded him for most of the game and definitely did some good work shutting Durant down, though it seems he was having an off night anyway, even missing open shots.

Speaking of Webster, he had a slow start but was able to come away with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. 2 of his points were claimed in a dunk in which he posterized Etan Thomas. The Blazers' high scorer tonight was none other than Steve Blake. He came away with 18 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. B.Roy was right behind him with 16 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists. It was nice to see the classic move of Roy to Blake in the corner for three tonight! Greg Oden also made a big splash in the game! He earned the first Blazer double double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds!

One of the biggest stories of the game though, is undoubtedly LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge has been known to flourish against OKC in the past, but tonight a knee bone contusion forced him to sit on the bench after only playing 12 minutes and scoring 6 points. He banged knees with an OKC player and was immediately benched and taken to the locker room for evaluation. He was seen shooting some baskets and warming up with a knee brace at half time but never returned in the game. No word yet on whether or not his condition is serious enough to keep LMA out of the next Blazer game on Tuesday.

The Blazers won it in the end at only 83 - 74. Definitely a low scoring game tonight. On the game tonight, Roy said, "You’re never gonna have a perfect game but we sure bought into our system defensively tonight." And I have to agree. The Blazers definitely had a much better flow tonight than we've seen so far. They seemed much more confident and Greg Oden seemed A LOT more confident. I was really pleased at the amount of touches he was getting early in the game. I think as the team starts to find their rhythm we will also continue to see a much more confident and improved Greg Oden. Teams will fear him at the line and in the paint!

Also an exciting story coming out of this game is that it was Nate McMillan's 150th win as the Blazers' head coach!! Congrats are most definitely in order for the head coach and we're excited to see him continue to get many more wins under his belt!


The Blazers next take on the Atlanta Hawks at the Rose Garden on Tuesday night. Tip off is at 7 PM PST! I will once again be attending this game and I will do my best to take pictures and tweet updates from the game so be sure to follow me on Twitter.


(Pictures From Top To Bottom: The Associated Press, WendellWallace - The Arena)