betprepare.com

Thunder arriving with just nine healthy players

The away team will be powered just by Russell Westbrook, who finally has the chance to show that he's ready to be their first choice, but even with a stellar performance from him Thunder have nothing to look for in Portland

The Portland Trailblazers ended the last season on a 54-28 record, which was enough for 5th place in the super-tough Western Conference, along with an amazing fact that four of their five starters played all 82 games. After eliminating the Rockets over six games in one of the more interesting playoff series of that season and getting to the second round of the playoff for the first time in 14 years, Terry Stott's team ran into the Spurs machine and got reminded that they will need to make a couple of more steps forward to achieve something more than the second round.

- We took what we achieved last year as the baseline and focused on keeping the same goals and improving, something you have to do if you want to become an elite team- said coach Terry Stotts.


The summer trading scene was not of interest to the Blazers, they brought in only seasoned veterans Chris Kaman and Steve Blake, who were supposed to improve the status of the bench a bit. The Blazers were among the top teams of the league in most offense-based statistics. Coach Stotts insists on lots of movement, good passing and perimeter shooting, which fits the three perimeter players perfectly (Lillard, Matthews, Batum) since they have no problem trying for long distance shots, while Aldridge took care of the mid-range shooting.


The Blazers get into trouble on the other end of the court. The good defense they have against three point attempts is nullified by their inability to stop pick and roll, which is mostly Lillard's fault, as there is yet to come a block he does not seem to get stuck to. The Blazers were also bottom ranked in blocks and steals last year, which prevented them from getting easy points from transition.


-We were not as bad as people thought. We definitely cannot rely on defense alone, but I think we're headed in the right direction. At the same time, we cannot rely on offense alone either. Last year we had the best offense in the league in the first part of the season, but then we dropped and had to win some games with defense. I think that everyone in the team understands that in order to make a further step ahead we need to keep our offense at the level we had last year and at the same time become one of the top 10 defensive teams of the league- said the man coaching the Blazers, who were just 26th in the league in defense in his first year (allowing 106.9 points per 100 possessions), but then jumped up to 16th position last year (104.7 per 100 possessions), which allows for some optimism in that respect.


The OKC crew ended the last regular season on an impressive 59-23 record, but lost Serge Ibaka to injury on the road to the conference final, which was too much of a handicap for them to overcome the Spurs. They're not entering this season with a full roster either, on the contrary. They lost their best player and top scorer Kevin Durant during the preparation period, and he will miss the first quarter of the season. To make things even worse, their key man from the bench, Reggie Jackson, will also be missing the Portland match, as will their biggest summer reinforcement Anthony Morrow, while Mitch McGary and Grant Jarrett are also out.


- I've never seen anything like this, but as I've been saying all along, it's part of the game. The only thing we can control is us continuing to prepare and that's exactly what we're going to do- commented coach Brooks, who arrived to Portland with just nine healthy players.


This leaves Thunder to start with Russell Westbrook, Andre Robertson, Perry Jones, Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams, who became a starter during preseason, where he averaged 12.7 points and 6.8 rebounds, but he will most likely share his time with Kendrick Perkins.


- I did not see it as a difficult decision, both Steven and Perk are an important part of what we do. Perk played a big part in our success, before he arrived we were a very good, athletic team, and with him we became much tougher. He added a critical component for success to our team and I never viewed his stats as a measure of his performance. He is a long time winner in this league- commented coach Brooks.


It's clear that tonight, and for some time in the future, Thunder will rely exclusively on Russell Westbrook to power them, as he finally has the chance to prove he is ready to be the primary option. His stats will no doubt be phenomenal by the time Durant returns, and the very favorable match-up he has tonight might result in a fantastic performance, but this Thunder team still have no chance in Portland.

I'm not prone to taking handicaps such as this one, but this is simply too good to pass. Scott Brooks took nine players to Portland, most of whom are useless on offense. Centers Adams and Perkins can hardly dunk, let alone do something in the post, while Robertson and Jones scored a combined average of 5.4 points last year, with Telfair earning his paycheck outside the NBA. One can also hardly expect Ibaka to both guard the best man on the other team (Aldridge) and score 20-25 points at the same tie. This brings us to Russell Westbrook who will have to make up for the points of Durant, Jackson and Morrow all by himself, which will certainly wear him out considerably, especially since this is the first game of the season, so the final moments will be a bit harder. I have no doubt he will fire off 30 or so shots, but I doubt he can beat the Blazers alone, as they're well tuned in, having only let go of two bench players. Taking it all into account, without the three players I mentioned earlier, one of whom is probably the best basketball player on the planet next to LeBron, Thunder have no chance in Portland. For the less brave a 'straight' win for the home team can serve as a decent addition to a combo ticket.