Thunder vs. Blazers: Pregame Primer
vs.
Thunder (0-0, 0-0 road) vs. Trail Blazers (0-0, 0-0 home)
TV: ESPN
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1300 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 9:30 CT
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 00.0 (30th), Blazers – 00.0 (30th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 00.0 (30th), Blazers – 00.0 (30th)
Pace: Thunder – 00.0 (30th), Blazers – 00.0 (30th)
Introducing new DT contributor Ryan Woods, who will be manning your Pregame Primer ship this season. Ryan also writes for FanSided at HoopsHabit. You can follow him on Twitter here.
The Thunder will be without Kevin Durant on its opening night for the first time since Durant entered the league in 2007. Playing without the reigning MVP and scoring champion makes the first month of the season a real challenge in a loaded western conference. Now throw in injuries to Reggie Jackson, Jeremy Lamb, Anthony Morrow and Mitch McGary… oof.
Portland is coming off a 54-win year and returns a roster that registered an offensive rating of 111.5 (good for second in the league) in 2013-14. Portland added Steve Blake and Chris Kaman to its rotation that lacked scoring off the bench.
Oklahoma City made headlines Tuesday by announcing Steven Adams as the starting center. Adams matches up against Robin Lopez, Serge with LaMarcus Aldridge – a player who has had his share of monster nights against Oklahoma City.
The Thunder will have just nine players available tonight — certainly not the way Scott Brooks envisioned opening night. Ready or not, here we go.
3 Big Things
The Rotation: The Thunder’s starters are set: Westbrook-Roberson-Jones-Ibaka-Adams. The bench – the entire bench – is Perkins, Collison, Lance Thomas, and Sebastian Telfair. Oklahoma City plays 5 of its first 7 games against 2014 playoff… translation: perspective rocks.
Foul Trouble: With a rotation this thin avoiding foul trouble becomes paramount. With Telfair the only reserve guard there are only 18 total fouls between available guards, and one of those guards is Andre Roberson. Portland’s wing combo of Matthews/Batum presents a serious challenge for Roberson to stay aggressive, but out of foul trouble.
Steven Adams is coming off of a pretty superb preseason, but all of that hard work is for not if he’s strapped to the bench with early fouls. Brooks needs every available body for the fourth quarter so look for early subs if one of those two are called for a couple early ones.
Defense: With this many scorers out, Oklahoma City will have to win games on the defensive end. Portland’s offense ranked fourth in the league last year scoring 106.7ppg. They have the athletes to be stifling, but can they sustain it with such a short rotation?
Tip at 9:30 CT. Everybody Up.
