Conference Finals - justanotherguy's Blog

justanotherguy's Blog

Conference Finals

Posted on October 1, 2014 at 11:02 AM.

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"You have to play every possession like its your last."

"You gotta play with some passion, you have to play like you want to win this game! We can't expect them to give it to us. We gotta take it! That's how we play!"

"One possession at a time, all the way to the finish!"

"It's not about any one person, its about us and how we do."

Welcome to the 2014 Western Conference Finals where the two powerhouse teams of the Western Conference will do battle to see who can punch their ticket to the NBA Finals.

With two successful sweeps so far in the playoffs, things were looking up for the Blazers, but now with the Oklahoma City Thunder as their next opponent, it appears as though they have finally met their match.

In fact, I'll admit that I was overwhelmed this series because Kevin Durant was at the SG position to allow Caron Butler to join the starting line up for the Thunder. And that meant I would be matched up against Durant for the entire series. I know from experience that if Durant gets his jumper going, he's nearly impossible to guard, so I did what I could to take that away from him, but in doing so I gave up numerous lanes to the basket for him. So I did everything I could offensively to give my team the same production.

Lillard also had a tough match up with Westbrook, but I think the two of them just about matched each others production.

The key to this series once again, was Lamarcus Aldridge. Unfortunately, for most of the series he was in foul trouble due to Durant attacking the basket, and I'll admit that-that was my fault.

Game 1 was a battle until the very end where made free throws allowed the Blazers to walk away with a seven point win. Game 2 was a blowout until the fourth quarter where the Thunder decided that they would at least make a game out of this. They worked their way back into the game, and there were a few moments that just left a speechless, like this one. ->

His hand is definitely in the rim there, but he wasn't called for a goal tend. But despite blowing a 20 point lead, LMA put his foot down and carried us to the win late in the fourth quarter. So we won both of our home games, barely, but a win is a win.

It wasn't until we went on the road did I realize how important LMA was for us to win. In the first quarter of Game 3 he picked up some early fouls and had to go the bench. The Thunder attacked us relentlessly, putting us in a hole that we just couldn't work our way out of for the rest of the game.

But after a suffering a huge loss in game 3, the entire team responded in a game 4 as we fought the Thunder tooth and nail to the fourth quarter where we had one of our outbursts to run away with the game.

Returning to Portland, we went into the game 5 with a mission, and ran the Thunder off our court in the third quarter, clinching the series and securing our ticket to the NBA Finals!

But even after knocking Kevin Durant, the MVP and his team out of the playoffs, an even greater test awaited us in the NBA Finals. Lebron James, the best active player in the NBA and certainly one of the greatest of all time.