Thunder stay alive beating the Blazers, 101-90

Well, it’s simple now. It’s down to one.

Or two, actually. The Thunder have to beat the Wolves, and hope the Spurs handle the Pelicans.

To get there, the Thunder played decently well against the Blazers, defending better than they have in weeks, and riding another monster effort from Russell Westbrook to keep the season kicking.

“It’s definitely difficult,” Westbrook said of the situation. “But we put ourselves in this position, but at the same time we’ve just got to go out and take care of our business and see what happens.”

The Thunder weren’t shy about the help they need. But they also were very firm about making sure everyone knows it doesn’t matter if they don’t beat the Wolves. That’s the focus they’re trying to maintain, to keep perspective and resist letting their minds wander to what might be happening elsewhere.

“We just have to focus on winning the game,” Scott Brooks said. “It’s a one game season for us. We have to go up to Minnesota and beat them. We’re going to have to play for 48 minutes. We can’t worry about what’s happening in New Orleans. We have to just focus on what we do. They have a tough matchup. We have a tough matchup. Every team in this league, if you don’t take them seriously, can beat you. We’re just going to focus on playing good basketball and take care of our business. Hopefully we get some help down south of us.

“We’re going to need some help from San Antonio,” he said. “I’ve always been a Pop fan, and [on Wednesday] I’ll be even more of a Pop fan.”

The Spurs have something to play for because a win for them (amazingly) secures the 2-seed for them. So they’re almost assuredly going to try. It may not be enough anyway, because who knows, maybe the Pelicans play a great game. And if that happens, so be it; it’s the bed the Thunder have made for themselves.

Take tonight for example. They played a solid 48-minute game, but they also had difficulty putting away the Blazers garbage time group who played most of the fourth quarter after Nic Batum and C.J. McCollum were hurt, with Damian Lillard resting. Kind of sad, really. But they did enough and got the win, which at least for those who still care, makes Wednesday mean something.

NOTES:

Westbrook asked if he’s going to root for the Spurs: “I ain’t gotta root for nobody. I ain’t no Spurs fan. What type of question is that? You see my hat?” He was wearing a Thunder hat.

Enes Kanter was huge. He scored 27 on 13-20 shooting with 13 rebounds and provided that perfect combination with Westbrook again. He was good on the block, good facing up, good in the pick-and-pop and good on the boards.

Dion Waiters’ line isn’t good — 13 points on 4-21 shooting, seven rebounds, four assists — but I thought he played his butt off. He took a lot of bad shots and didn’t make many, but he absolutely tried to bring energy and effort.

The Thunder clearly had a defensive mindset to begin the game, flying to the ball, helping off the weakside and rotating well. It’s the kind of effort that’s been missing in a lot of these games lately.

Adams did a really nice job protecting the rim tonight. Had four blocks, and they came in pretty rapid succession.

Multiple times tonight Westbrook made me say wow. The alley-oop he finished, the steal he had where he threw his body at Tim Frazier, the attacks he had at Meyers Leonard and Robin Lopez. Dude just doesn’t stop.

Also: Meyers Leonard is apparently a good 3-point shooter. That is weird.

Teams are reallllllly loading up on Anthony Morrow. He scored 11 and hit a big 3 to ice the game, but he can’t get much space right now.

Asked if he’s being defended differently: “Yeah, definitely. More teams are locking in more on not leaving certain plays and not really helping attack the bigs when they roll.”

Morrow on how he can influence offense even without shooting: “That’s something as a shooter, your reputation after a while, you turn into a decoy. But at the end of the day it’s about being in shape and about being able to move without the ball so you can still get attempts up.”

Outside of Morrow, the bench was mostly non-existent. I don’t know what happened to D.J. Augustin, but it would help if he’d come back.

Only eight turnovers. That’s 23 total the last three games. That’s good.

Still a handful of missed free throws. Steven Adams struggled again, hitting just 4-10. Asked about the reason, he said, “It’s just me being useless.”

Something that I missed last night: With the Wizards winning and Thunder losing, OKC’s locked in to keeping their pick this year. It was top-18 protected and at worst, they get No. 18 if they win tomorrow and the Pelicans lose. Or they don’t get in the playoffs and have a lottery pick.

Next up: At the Wolves on Wednesday