The OKC Thunder take on their division rival the Portland Trail Blazers. Although the Blazers already own the tiebreaker the game is still meaningful.
The OKC Thunder have had quite a peculiar past week. Beating the Toronto Raptors who hold the third best overall record and top seed in the Eastern Conference on Sunday.
Suffering a cataclysmic collapse in Boston against the Celtics on Tuesday.
The Celtics trailed by 5 with 16.8 seconds to go and won.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 21, 2018
Entering today, teams were 0-884 this season when trailing by 5 or more points in the final 20 seconds of the game. pic.twitter.com/pgZ87K2gbv
And, last but not the least Oklahoma City defeated the Miami Heat at home on Friday night. The game was sluggish and unpleasant to watch. However, at this point in the season OKC will accept a victory anyway they can get one.
The biggest positive from the game was OKC’s minimal number of turnovers. OKC registered eight turnovers in the first half, which is a decent number. And, only three in the second half. 11 turnovers is one of OKC’s better games as far as turnovers are concerned.
Let’s start this week with a better performance, shall we? The OKC Thunder are 0-3 this season against the Blazers. Although unlikely, it is not out of the realm of possibility that these two teams could meet in the Western Conference Finals.
I mean if Loyola Chicago and Sister Jean taught us anything, it’s that you must believe, but at the same time have realistic expectations.
If Houston and Golden State are still fighting the injury bug in the first round or beyond. It is feasible one or both teams would miss out on a conference finals appearance. The Thunder and or Blazers would gladly occupy the spot.
It is imperative the Thunder wins tonight. Not only for the mental aspect. Also because tonight is as close to a must win before it mathematically becomes a must win.
As Thunder play-by-play man Brian Davis would say the Thunder are down to their last match and the wind is blowing strongly.
Shifting to the Blazers viewpoint
The Trail Blazers had an eventful week as well, unlike the Thunder the Blazers week had more negative than positive. Nevertheless, Portland can still essentially close the door on the Thunder’s hope of capturing the third seed in the Western Conference.
Since February 1, Damian Lillard has been on quite the tear scoring (622) points on (44.0%) field goal percentage, (36.9%) from three, and (91.4%) from the foul line.
Interesting enough to go along with Lillard’s uptick in production he and CJ McCollum‘s minutes together have decreased. Dropping from 26 minutes per game to 25 minutes per game.
One minute may not seem like a big deal, but this is the NBA and it does not take a lot of time to impact a game. One can not argue with the results as the Blazers have gone 15-6.
With that, let’s jump into the the three keys to tonight’s match.