As the OKC Thunder battle in the first round playoff series, there are three Portland Trail Blazers x-factors Oklahoma needs to be wary of.
To me, the biggest X-factor for Portland is can or can’t you play Enes Kanter? That question will be answered entirely by OKC Thunder center Steven Adams and seeing as I already took a deep dive into this matchup, which you can click here to read, Enes Kanter will not be one of the three X-Factors for this article.
The Portland Trail Blazers enjoyed a 53 win season, that saw them begrudgingly take the third seed in the West despite them trying their best to dodge the third slot and a matchup with the OKC Thunder in favor of trying their luck against Utah.
On the last day of the season, Portland trailed by 28 to the Sacramento Kings, as Terry Stotts only deployed six players in game 82, one of whom only played 13 minutes in the contest. They sat their regulars and hoped to punt on the game and host Utah.
They won the game 136-131 and earned the third seed and now will welcome in the OKC Thunder on Sunday, a team that swept them in the regular season even while the Blazers were at full strength.
The Trail Blazers offense ranks third in the NBA, while their defense is slotted at 16th.
They are without big man Jusuf Nurkic who gave OKC trouble and was an enforcer, a guy who can easily set off Russell Westbrook, for the remainder of the season.
The OKC Thunder have had to play the entire season without defensive menace Andre Roberson, and go into the series unsure about Paul George’s health, and seeing their own big man limp into postseason play.