How Blazers win affects Thunder:
The other key takeaway from the Blazers win was whether that affects how the fanbase views the loss now. Many analysts are surprised by how well the Blazers have fared given the loss of Jusuf Nurkic (raises hand). But, was this team just severely underrated?
And, given that fact does this change how Thunder Nation views the clubs early exit? Certainly, there are extenuating factors to dive into in this regard. Although we knew Paul George wasn’t 100 percent news Russell Westbrook also was playing injured factors.
We can debate those things don’t matter especially since Billy Donovan would’ve likely increased their minutes if they were healthier.
One thing I frequently ask NBA fans is how another team’s prowess affects the view of their favorite team’s performance. For example, several Eastern teams (including Paul George’s Pacers) fell victim to LeBron James and either the Heat or Cavaliers over the years. Some fans don’t care with a firm belief it takes a team to win four games while others view the superstar effect as palpable.
With that in mind, I sent out a twitter poll to Thunder Nation to assess how the Blazers was viewed with direct correlation to the team’s first round oust.
Does the fact the Blazers are moving on to the Western Conference Finals ease our angst over losing to them in R1? #ThunderUp #NBAPlayoffs
— Thunderous Intentions (@thunderousint) May 12, 2019
As you can see the overwhelming thoughts by Thunder Nation are the team simply missed a golden opportunity. The distant second place finisher (albeit all the other options ranked very close) is the fan group who feel a healthy PG13 could’ve changed the final result.