The last time a fan base was this excited to play us in the first round....

Who on their team is as good at defense as rondo and holiday?

 

As has been discussed before, the results this year were impacted by two B2Bs and a first game back after a 7 game road trip. All the games were competitive. Last year, with a lesser roster for the Blazers and essentially the same one for the Thunder, the Blazers swept them. Yeah, Nurk is missing, but Kanter is playing well and is very familiar with the Thunder from his years there. To me all of that says this is going to be a tough, hard fought series that either team can win.

 

The match ups that worry me are, obviously PG, but more so I keep thinking about Steven Adams bullying us down low.

Other than that, I hope the Thunder are as over confident as their ignorant cow pie tossing fan base.

 

notice that I said in conference and 4-0

 

Yes, didn't think I needed green font on that one but apparently I did.

 

Im think Kanter will get his against the Kiwi.

 

sorry...those look like excuses to me. I'm not saying there isn't something to those factors, but it's not like B2B sets are unheard of in the NBA, and in fact, in one of those B2B's for Portland, OKC was on the 2nd night of a B2B themselves.

yes, the games were close, but at a certain point it needs to be at least acknowledged when something goes beyond just being a fluke of scheduling. I'd say 4-0 is past that point, and trying to stick an asterisk on 3 on 4 games because of rather normal NBA scheduling seems kind of weak

but I do agree it's going to be a hard-fought series. The difference this year compared to last year is that last year, OKC had regular Paul George; this season they had MVP-level PG. If the MVP-level PG shows up for the series it will probably be lights out for Portland

 

sorry....and you're right, I took it too literal

 

I could watch that forever

 

As I’ve stated I’m almost positive no team has ever gone 0-8 against another team in the same season. This bad boy is going the distance, anyone worried about a sweep can stop that now.

 

Sorry, but I disagree. One person's "excuses" are another person's facts. Portland swept OKC last season. Does that mean nothing in your equation?

We're going to find out what's real starting Sunday. Until then, I'm tired of the deep dark pessimism some folks around here have.

 

Got it:
2011 Bulls beat Heat 3-0 in regular season but lost 1-4 in playoffs.
2014 Nets beat Heat 4-0 in regular season but lost 1-4 playoffs.
It's happened 5 out of 8 times in the NBA Finals since 1995.

There are more, I'm sure. We talk about ALL of this on nbaplayoffschriseric.com!

 

thanks for looking it up KS

just a little more context: in the Chi/Miami case, 2 of 3 games were in Chicago and Lebron missed one of the games. In the Nets/Miami case, 3 of the games were all 1 point wins for the Nets and the 4th went to double OT

the NBA finals don't matter in this regard IMO. Only 2 games, and teams aren't nearly as familiar with each other as they are in-conference

 

I'll be very disappointed if we won't win this series.

I don't know why, but OKC plays the DUMBEST brand of basketball in the playoffs. Ever since they lost that series to Golden State they look like they are coached by coach Smiley.


Edit: ok, maybe we'll lose ONE at the Cheesecake arena.

 

[Terry Stotts]: "Hold my beer..."

 

Paul George?

 

George...

 

That Westbrook guy isn't an awful defender either...