*cheesy title I know*
Tomorrow, the Blazers (30 - 23) welcome the
• Portland has won five straight games in the series at the Rose Garden, doing so by 12.8 points per game. The Trail Blazers have won four straight series meetings overall.
• Portland earned an 83-74 win in the first meeting of this season’s series on Nov. 1 in Oklahoma City, marking Portland’s first road win of the year. The Thunder recorded a Trail Blazers opponent franchise-low six assists and shot just 34.3% (24-70) from the field.
• With a 3-1 edge in 2008-09, the Trail Blazers won the series vs. the Thunder franchise for
the first time since 2002-03. Portland outscored Oklahoma City by 26.3 points per win.
• Two of Portland’s league-best five wins by 30 points or more in 2008-09 came against
the Thunder, including Portland’s largest margin of victory in series history, a 107-72 rout on April 3 in Oklahoma City.
• In four games between the teams last year, Portland held a distinct edge in field goal shooting (48.1%-41.5%) and three-point shooting (39.7%-18.9%). Both of Oklahoma City’s shooting marks were the lowest of any Western Conference team against Portland in 2008-09.
• The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Thunder, 196-146, in four games last season, including a 58-42 margin on the offensive end.
• Brandon Roy led the Trail Blazers with 22.3 points in four contests against the Thunder last season. Travis Outlaw netted 17.8 points (56.9% FG) and LaMarcus Aldridge added 17.3 points (51.7% FG) and 10.5 rebounds. Aldridge counted a season-high 35 points (14-24 FG), one short of a career best, and a career-high 18 rebounds (seven off.) on April 3, 2009, at Oklahoma City.
• Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 18.5 points but shot 27-for-68 (39.7%) from the field in four contests vs. Portland a season ago.
• Nate McMillan played 12 seasons with the Thunder franchise from 1986-87 to 1997-98, averaging 5.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.94 steals in 796 games. His 19 assists on Feb. 18, 1989, are tied for the most in a game vs. Portland in the history of the franchise.
• Jeff Pendergraph and Oklahoma City’s James Harden were the two leading scorers and rebounders at Arizona State during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons … The Trail Blazers and Thunder feature a combined six former Pac-10 players.
• Thunder assistant coach Maurice Cheeks posted a 162-139 (.538) mark in three-plus seasons as head coach of the Trail Blazers from 2001-05. Oklahoma City assistant coach Mark Bryant played seven seasons for the Trail Blazers, posting averages of 4.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in 431 games in the red and black.
- Kevin Durant - OKC's all-star has been averaging a big 29.7 points per game. One of the leaders in the NBA in scoring. It will be crucial for our guys to play good defense on KD, as we did back when we played them earlier this season in OKC, we held Kevin to 16 points on just 3 - 21 from the field.
- Fast Pace Game - Oklahoma likes to run and we need to keep up with them. OKC is going to want to keep this at a fast pace game and if we can control the tempo to get an early lead that will be essential to a Portland win.
- Ball Don't Lie, Gotta Make Your Free Throws - For all that is good in the world please make your free throws Portland! I used to be able to count on LaMarcus for a good 2 - 2 from the line but now, I don't really know...free throws can make or break a game in the end.
Not a lot of keys tonight, it's been a long day and we tend to play really well against OKC so I'm crossing my fingers for a nice win after Saturday's devastating loss to the L*kers. As you can tell, I honestly didn't want to talk about it *hence the super short post*. I know if I would've tried writing about it I would've gotten really frustrated and thrown my computer out the window annnnd well, I can't afford a new computer. I'm always excited to see Kevin Durant play, I love Greg Oden and all but I will admit that back during the pre-draft times I was rooting for us to pick KD.
*Special Note To My Fellow Bitter Sonic Fans: Tune in to the local Blazers broadcast Tuesday at 6:15pm! Sonicsgate director Jason Reid is on TV before the PDX vs OKC Blunder game! (For those of you who haven't been able to see it yet, Sonicsgate is an EXCELLENT documentary about the dealings that led up to the Sonics moving to OKC with interviews from sports writers and former Sonics players. The film will also be showing at the Portland Beer & Movie Fest check out the deets here: www.sonicsgate.org
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