TUALATIN, Ore. — Following their 106-89 opening night win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Portland Trail Blazers were singing the same tunes at practice a few hours later.
They were pleased with their overall stick-to-itiveness on the defensive end that culminated with a lockdown fourth quarter where the Thunder only mustered 0.6 points per possession.
And while it took a halftime call to action from LaMarcus Aldridge to get the Blazers to turn around their effort, a win’s a win.
“He was doing everything,” Damian Lillard said. “He was scoring all their points. I know he had a lot of good defensive plays in the first half.
“We just needed to be better and he being the leader of the team, he voiced his opinion and everything agreed with him. Once he came into the locker room and said what he had to say, we said he right. And we fixed it.”
Lillard also addressed tweets that had surfaced via the website reddit from 2011 that were directed at his current friend, Cleveland’s LeBron James.
“In college me and some of my college teammates were messing around,” Lillard said. “I was the obvious Miami Heat fan and they wanted Dallas to win. And I made some comments about LeBron that was uncalled for. And that just goes to show that a lot of kids now, a lot of stuff that you put out there you’ll never know if it will come back.”
Lillard and James currently have a relationship. Damian said he called the four-time MVP as soon as the pictures had surfaced.
“It’s something I wasn’t proud of but I can say I’ve grown up since then,” he said. “I was just a young kid doing crazy stuff with my teammates, that was pretty much it.”
And there is also a trip to Sacramento for a game Halloween night against big man DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings.
Last season Cousins went off against the Blazers, averaging 33.3 points per game against Portland, better than any other team in the league to go along with 11.5 rebounds. The Blazers still went 3-1 but on the season series.
“I think that’s one of the toughest match-ups for all of our bigs,” Chris Kaman said. “I think any big in the NBA. He does so many things well.”
The Kings don’t have high expectations but they do boast two members of team USA in Cousins and forward Rudy Gay. Cousins presents Portland’s defense with a challenge of guarding a superstar player.
Sacramento is almost fully healthy but were handily beaten at home by 18 at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
Meyers Leonard, who was inactive for the opener against Oklahoma City, did not make the trip with the Blazers to Sacramento due to an upper respiratory illness.
