PORTLAND — The Portland Trail Blazers moved on up and locked up their spot in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Blazers are currently tied with the Memphis Grizzlies for the fifth seed in the West after an unimpressive 120-115 victory over the shorthanded Oklahoma City Thunder.
The final score did not reflect the competitiveness of this game very well. The most suspenseful moment of the night was whether crowd noise would properly direct a blind-folded fan towards their desired home appliance between the third and fourth quarters.
But much like the expectations of this Blazers team going into the season, how they got here doesn’t seem to matter much anymore. What matters is that they’re here now.
“It means everything,” shooting guard Allen Crabbe said of clinching a playoff berth for the third straight season. “It just shows that we accomplished what we believe from the beginning. Everybody thought we would only have 20 wins, now looking at us we are in a good position. It’s exciting, it really is.”
The Blazers were pleased with officially making the playoffs but not overly excited, a sign that they have still have more work to do to lock up their playoff seed and set-up a first round match-up against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Everybody’s happy but we all understand we still have business to take care of, get these next two wins and go into the playoffs with some momentum,” Crabbe said.
While head coach Terry Stotts didn’t show much interest in discussing pre-season expectations after the game, Damian Lillard will gladly two-step all over the folks who cast him as a sympathetic, yet tragic figure left to fight a losing battle after losing 80 percent of last year’s starting line-up.
“You’re definitely going to hear some comments from me the next couple of days,” Damian Lillard said when asked if he was tempted to give doubters an “I told you so.”
Al-Farouq Aminu led the Blazers with 27 points, as well as six rebounds and five assists. CJ McCollum joined Aminu in a big scoring night, finishing with 26 points.
The Blazers led by as many as 23 points in the third quarter, giving themselves enough cushion to fend off a late run from the Thunder.
The lack of suspense can be attributed to Oklahoma City head coach Billy Donovan’s decision to rest four players including All-Stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, shot-blocking forward Serge Ibaka and defensive whiz Andre Roberson.
The move acknowledged what nearly everybody looking at projected playoff match-ups suspected: the Thunder want to no part of the Blazers in the first round of the playoffs.
The Thunder are locked into the third seed after Tuesday’s win at Denver and will face the sixth seed, where the Blazers currently are.
With the news that Memphis’ Mike Conley will be out for the rest of the season and the fact they’ve cycled through a record number of players this season, it’s clear the Grizzlies are the most desirable opponent in the playoffs, if they make it.
The Grizzlies have four games left, including three against the two best teams league, facing the Warriors twice and the Spurs once.
The Blazers play just twice, Saturday vs. Minnesota and Wednesday vs. Denver.
McCollum pitched in 30 points in Tuesday’s victory and was good again on the back-to-back, scoring 15 first-half points and making quick work of the porous Thunder defense without their best players.
Trailing by 15, the Thunder decided to start the second half with Kanter, their leading scorer in the first half, on the bench and the Blazers quickly pushed the lead up to the 20’s.
The Thunder kept fighting and Kanter eventually found is way back onto the court and into some more buckets.
Kanter finished with career-high 33 points and 20 rebounds.
Kanter put up monster numbers and helped keep the Thunder close, as did guard Dion Waiters, who finished with 25 points.
Lillard and company were forced to play in the 4th quarter to hold off a Thunder rally.
But despite their efforts, the Thunder did their part to set up their playoff path.
And the fans successfully guided the blindfolded fan on the floor to a new refrigerator.
