The Portland Trail Blazers get a huge test by hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night (Feb. 6). Maybe it's not so much of a test as it is to see if the Blazers are still the better team this year. The Blazers already went out on the road and took it to Oklahoma City on Jan. 3, winning that game 103-93. Now it's just time to hold serve at the Rose Garden in front of a crowd hungry for another win.
The game plan this time around is much the same; feed the ball to LaMarcus Aldridge and watch him dominate. Aldridge scored 30 points and had 8 rebounds in the last game against the Thunder. The Blazers defense also shut down Kevin Durant, holding him to just 8-for-26 shooting from the field and 19 total points in the game. The leading scorer for the Thunder was actually James Harden with 23 points last time, as even Russell Westbrook struggled to find consistency.
The Blazers will run out basically the same rotation of players that beat the Thunder in early January, with Nicolas Batum and Jamal Crawford looking to provide energy off the bench. Batum is hot off of his best game in a Blazers uniform, scoring 33 points on 9 three-pointers against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night (Feb. 4). It was the second time that the Blazers have crushed the Nuggets this season, running the record against Oklahoma City and Denver to 3-0 in the early going.
Game time at the Rose Garden is 7 p.m. PT on Monday (Feb. 6) and this has all the makings of a great showdown. Teams are still battling for position in the Northwest division and this is a chance for the Blazers to prove that Oklahoma City isn't just going to run away with another division title this season. Durant and his friends are likely looking for a bit of revenge after getting embarrassed on their home court in January, so the Blazers have to work carefully around any of the shooters catching fire for the Thunder.
Are the Blazers ready to make a serious move up the Western Conference standings? Monday is certainly the chance for the team to prove that every other team has to go through Portland to win the West this year.
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*Ryan is a Northwest bred sports fan that has been a Portland Trail Blazers fan for years. He doesn't miss a game, and has high hopes that the Blazers can improve their roster during the offseason and come back even better in the 2011-12 NBA season.
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