Report Card
Grade: B
Recap: Normally, a 2-2 record wouldn’t warrant a B, but given how three games were on the road, all came against Western Conference playoff teams, and that there were fears the Blazers could lose significant ground in the playoff race over this stretch, a .500 record last week is more than acceptable.
It began when the Thunder demonstrated how difficult a match-up it is for any team that has to travel to Oklahoma City as Russell Westbrook proved why he was in the MVP discussion for much of the year — torching Portland for 28 points while delivering a dagger of a 3-pointer in the final minute.
The Blazers would recover a day later, though, facing a San Antonio team more depleted than the Blazers have been all year. Yeah, how many times did you think you’d ever read that? The Spurs featured no Manu Ginobili, no Tony Parker and no Tim Duncan. Hardly a formula for a win, and yet, the Blazers still had to come back in the fourth quarter to get the victory.
They did it although they didn’t carry that momentum into New Orleans two days later. After the San Antonio game, LaMarcus Aldridge complained that he was “gassed” from all the minutes he’d been playing, possibly communicating to Nate McMillan that he needed a little rest. He didn’t get any against the Hornets, although he still scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
Not enough as the Hornets came out with the victory to win the tie-breaker with Portland and keep the bottom of the Western Conference playoff race as tight as it’s been all year.
As a result, the game Friday against the Thunder became all that much bigger — and the Blazers rose to the occasion.
They went on a 15-0 run in the third quarter and never again relinquished the lead. They clamped down on Kevin Durant and got him to miss 12 straight shots. It didn’t prove that Portland’s going to make any kind of run in the postseason, but to say it has beat the Spurs, the Bulls, the Thunder, the Magic, the Heat and the Nuggets over the past couple months certainly suggests the Blazers are capable of doing something.
In Focus
Nicolas Batum was upset the first time he was usurped from the starting lineup, but seemed to embrace it when Marcus Camby replaced him Friday. Besides scoring 19 points against the Thunder, he also played a key role in shutting down Durant.
Batum said that coming off the bench is something that “could be good for me.” His goal has always been to finish the game, not start it, and seeing how he still logged 34 minutes, his impact does not seem to have diminished.
By the Numbers
1 — The number of games separating seeds six through eight in the Western Conference playoff race heading into Sunday’s games.
3,021 — The number of minutes LaMarcus Aldridge had played heading into Sunday’s game, the second most in the league (Monta Ellis).
.326 — The 3-point percentage of supposed outside threat Rudy Fernandez heading into Sunday’s game.
