First, the NBA announced its decision to rescind the technical foul assessed to Russell Westbrook in Sunday's loss to the Indiana Pacers, meaning Oklahoma City's All-Star point guard will be available to suit up in a game the Thunder desperately need to win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Then, Oklahoma City's Monday opponent, the Portland Trail Blazers, announced that they'd be entering battle without one of their All-Stars:
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This will mark Portland's second straight game without leading scorer and rebounder LaMarcus Aldridge. The power forward missed Saturday's loss to the Utah Jazz, a defeat that ensured the Blazers — who are guaranteed a top-four playoff seed by virtue of winning the Northwest Division, and are locked into it being the No. 4 spot due to having a worse record than five other Western Conference squads — will not have home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs, as they cannot finish with a higher win total than any of their potential Round 1 opponents. The San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets all have at least 54 wins; Portland sits at 51 victories with just two games remaining on their schedule.
From the Blazers' perspective, much like the decision not to send the banged-up trio of Aldridge, Nicolas Batum and Chris Kaman cross-country last week for a make-up game against the Brooklyn Nets, the choice to keep Aldridge on the sidelines seems like one aimed at giving one of the players most important to their chances of making it out of Round 1 as much rest as possible before the playoffs start without ruling him out completely. From Erik Gundersen of the Columbian:
It’s a new injury for Aldridge, who has been plagued by injuries on both hands this season.
“He had an MRI [Friday] and there was soreness there,” head coach Terry Stotts said. “So we thought it was best to hold him out and let him recover [...]”
Stotts said that Aldridge the foot started bothering him after the Golden State game and while the results were negative he still had some soreness. Stotts said he didn’t have an idea for when Aldridge would come back or whether the injury had been nagging him prior to feeling soreness after the game in Oakland.
“I think it’s good to maintain a competitive edge,” Stotts said when asked whether he’d like “I’d like for him to get some minutes in before the playoffs start.”
Scott Brooks and company certainly won't complain too much about not seeing the sweet-shooting 6-foot-11 forward in the Blazers' lineup. Aldridge torched Oklahoma City to the tune of 27 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in three meetings against the Thunder this season, with Portland winning all three matchups.
Factor in the rest of the Blazers' missing pieces — two-way linchpin Wesley Matthews, lost for the season to a torn Achilles tendon; his replacement, Arron Afflalo, sidelined by a right shoulder strain; reserve wing and occasional stretch-four Dorell Wright, still working his way back from a broken left hand — and the fact that Batum is still playing with a sore back, and this looks like about as promising an opportunity as possible for a Thunder team that no longer controls its own destiny in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot out West.
Oklahoma City must finish one game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans in order to leapfrog Anthony Davis' crew for the No. 8 seed, since the Pelicans hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Thunder after winning the season series between the two teams three games to one. The Thunder host Portland on Monday and travel to the Twin Cities on Wednesday to wrap up the regular season against the Minnesota Timberwolves, while the Pelicans head to Minnesota on Monday before finishing up by hosting the white-hot San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. Oklahoma City needs some help, then, but must also hold up its end of the bargain. How kind of the Blazers, then, to help improve the Thunder's chances of helping themselves.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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from Yahoo Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/blazers--lamarcus-aldridge--left-foot-sprain--out-monday--opening-door-for-thunder-184644102.html
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