Oklahoma City Thunder – Portland Trail Blazers

OKC (7th place in the Western Conference)

Grouping Oklahoma lost the last three matches, all away. One of those defeats was recorded against your opponent even in this night, Blazers establishing himself in “Fashion Center” with a score of 114-109.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for OKC to stay in single player. Russell Westbrook produce figures from another planet (a fabulous average over 41 points scored in the failures mentioned above), but not enough for the Thunder. Basketball remains a team sport.

The group coached by Billy Donovan managed to win four consecutive games in their own arena before short adventures “on the road”. The performance is laudable, but the successes were checked either against opponents who are facing various internal problems (Pelicans has difficulty the uniformity, the Lakers is one of the weakest teams in the NBA, and the tension in the locker room the Knicks increases from day to date) or at little difference in score (109-106 vs. Jazz).

“The players have to help each other. I have to offer more support to Russian. We have to defend better, “were the words of Donovan after the match in the last round (89-104 vs. Mavericks). This “need” I’ve heard on other occasions, but few things have improved. Westbrook continues to play almost alone.

OKC is relatively safe from this in the second part of the season. The only unknown is what place will get qualifications (6 or 7). Most likely, it will give a battle between the men of Donovan and Memphis Grizzlies, but the advantages of better positions in the rankings would be huge and that’s because potential opponents in the first round of the playoffs are the teams with big names: Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

Portland Trail Blazers (9th place in the Western Conference)

Students Terry Stotts had to play today in the position of back-to-back, but problems with the prosecution of the Minnesota Timberwolves have made the dispute to be canceled. So factor “fatigue” is no longer an obstacle for the Blazers.

Grouping of Oregon is immediately below the line that keeps the play-off, with two wins and a half ago to the Nuggets. The distance is recoverable, but the Blazers have to play as it did in the last two stages: 114-109 vs. And 130-116 vs. OKC Nets.

Damian Lillard said after a few days as his team likes the situation, in that she has an important goal for which to fight in this final season. His words were not words hearsay, succeeding his partner in attack, CJ McCollum, to score more than 50 points in the successes of the previous two rounds.