Blazers Rise to Top Spot in West with Win Over Thunder

The surging Portland Trail Blazers added to their string of impressive wins over major contenders on Wednesday night, showing the league that they may be a true title contender themselves this season.

After becoming just the second team all season to knock off the Indiana Pacers (17-2) earlier this week, the Blazers became the fourth team to defeat the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder (13-4) and improved to a Western Conference-best record of 16-3 on the season, a standing we can safely say no one thought they would be in nearly 20 games into their 2013-2014 campaign.

The Blazers trailed 59-48 at halftime, but rallied behind an inspired 38-point, 13 rebound performance from LaMarcus Aldridge and in the end, prevailed 111-104, snapping OKC’s eight-game winning streak.

Following the win, Aldridge – who also netted a career-high 17 field goals – was congratulated with cheers of “MVP! MVP!” from the Moda Center crowd.

“Just surreal. It was humbling to have that moment here,” Aldridge said of the crowd’s reaction, according to ESPN.com. “I’ve been here so long and I’ve had very few of those type of chants here. So that was fun. I thought that made the night complete for me.”

As usual, Kevin Durant led the way for the Thunder, scoring 33 points, but tipped his proverbial hat to Aldridge and his spectacular performance.

“He was shooting turnarounds from almost the 3-point line over the top of our bigs and knocking them down,” Durant said of Aldridge. “That’s what great players do, they come through in the clutch and make shots.”

Russell Westbrook was the one hitting clutch shots for the Thunder down the stretch, but his 21 points were not enough to lift the Thunder late. Westbrook drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to one point with under six minutes to play, but Portland continued to hit outside shots and made crucial free throws to cap the victory.

The Blazers’ win also snapped a seven-game losing skid against the Thunder, who now find themselves below Portland in the Northwest Division standings for the first time in recent memory. Whether the Blazers can retain their newly found place atop the West remains to be seen, but 16 wins in 19 games is no fluke, especially since a few of them have come against the league’s top squads.

Bettors should keep a close eye on the youthful Blazers as the season continues, but avoid putting too much stock in them until we get a bit deeper into the regular season.