Portland Trail Blazers: 5 keys to series vs. Thunder
By Ty Delbridge
For the second straight season, the Portland Trail Blazers ended the season with the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs and home court advantage. But this year they are matched up with the sixth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Portland Trail Blazers finished the regular season with a record of 53-29. It was the most wins they have had since the 2013-14 season where they won 54.
This Portland team proved all the doubters wrong this season by being a top-four team in the West again and are now in line for a chance to make up for the way last season ended after being swept by the New Orleans Pelicans.
Losing Jusuf Nurkic was a huge blow after he suffered a broken leg on March 25, but this team is still very talented and has two of the best scoring guards in the NBA in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
But speaking of sweeps, the Blazers are matched up with the last team to sweep them in a series — the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They swept the Blazers 4-0 during the regular season this year. The Thunder finished the season 49-33 and luckily for them, they finished with the sixth seed instead of seventh or eighth.
OKC is led by Russell Westbrook who averaged a triple-double for the third straight season and Paul George who was having an MVP-type season until he hurt his shoulder and has not been 100 percent since.
Portland swept OKC during the 2017-18 regular season, and these two teams have shown to not really like each other when they matchup. Lillard and Westbrook have an intense rivalry but respect for each other and always go at it when they are on the floor.
Enes Kanter was once on OKC, and a has a chance to get some revenge on his former team.
This is going to be a very emotional and hard fought playoff series that is going to be very enjoyable to watch and could end up being decided in six or seven games.
For the Trail Blazers, they got the advantage of starting this series at home and will look to take a 1-0 lead on Sunday. Here are five keys for the Blazers to win this matchup against OKC.