Float like a butterfly, sting like ET? Blazers flex muscle, find moxie

Portland won a tough and touchy game against the Thunder in OKC. And what have we learned, Dear Reader? First of all, never doubt these new-look Blazers.

There is wisdom in Damian Lillard’s approach to the Blazers and the NBA season:

Don’t worry.

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As quoted in an article by The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Joe Freeman, Lillard said: “This is my sixth year, and if y’all ain’t figured out that I’m not a worrier by now, then I don’t know when y’all going to figure it out.”

Lillard has learned that the NBA season is a grind – a long, tortuous journey during which it becomes not only difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but to believe that there is a light at all. Or even a tunnel, for that matter.

Maybe it’s a grave. Feel me?

Blazers Left For Dead

How many times this season have the Blazers been left for dead? And let’s face it: In the mighty, monstrous and muscular Western Conference, “dead” means squatting in the seventh or eighth seed and getting thwacked out of the playoffs by Houston or Golden State.

And that’s if you even make the playoffs at all.

Back in December, there were questions galore about the Blazers ability to stay afloat in the West. As you may recall, Portland was 5-8 in December; whatever optimism had carried over from the end of the 2016-2017 season had all but evaporated.

But then the New Year came, and Lillard’s “no worries” mantra began to appear enlightened, if not a little bit psychic.

Blazers Start Rolling

The Blazers went 11-5 in January, 6-4 in February, and are 10-2 thus far in March. They’ve won 16 of their last 19 games. And there was that nifty 13-game winning streak in there, too. Some quick arithmetic shows that the Blazers are 27-11 since Jan. 1 — third best in the Association during that time.

And although the Blazers lost two straight after that 13-game win streak, they showed up in Oklahoma City Sunday in a way that added to their growing formidability. (Editor’s Note: Yup, that’s actually a word. Formidability. Know what else is a word? Moxie — which we put in the headline. Didja know it comes from the name of a soft drink? We didn’t. Learned something new!)

Blazers vs. Thunder

The Blazers blew an 18-point lead against the Thunder. That might have waylaid the Blazers if this had been December.

But this isn’t December, anymore. This is now. And now, the Blazers win.

And they win with muscle. A lesser team may have been punked out of the gymnasium Sunday, especially when things got a little chippy in the third quarter.

Enter Evan Turner, stage right. ET didn’t get much done on the offensive end Sunday (he had just two points while struggling with a nagging back injury), but his willingness to stick up for his teammates is what will stick out moving forward.

The Blazers are playing mostly cohesive basketball. Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic are rounding into the dominant and steady “Big Three” that we all expected them to be ever since Nurk showed up late last season.

But more importantly, guys are finding their niche and filling their roles with inspired and often excellent play. Whether it’s Maurice Harkless emerging from his doldrums and playing like the dynamite wing he is capable of being, or Al-Farouq Aminu continuing to catapult his rainbow threes even when they’re not falling for him. (They eventually start falling, and in the meantime, Chief plays defense like a fiend.)

Putting It All Together

It’s certainly reasonable to wonder about the occasional lackluster performance from the Blazers’ bench performers; they haven’t contributed much in the last few games.

But what Turner provided for the Blazers in OKC on Sunday was something that Rip City knew was there, but hadn’t seen displayed with such swift ferocity: backbone.

And the Blazers are going to need backbone — not just for the playoffs or even for the foreseeable long-term future. The Blazers are going to need it Tuesday (against the Pelicans) and Wednesday (against the Grizzlies) and Friday (against the Clippers).

You get the drift.

Sunday’s win against the Thunder solidified the third seed for the Blazers; it’s theirs to keep and to hold onto. But in the tightly packed West, nothing can be taken for granted.

Next: Blazers beat Thunder in OKC, 108-105, sweep season series

That’s why it was so good to see ET back up the fellas on Sunday. We know what the “Big Three” will bring. And what Chief and Harkless can bring. We also know what the bench can provide when it plays well.

But now we know something else: When it starts to get rough — and it will definitely get rough — the Portland Trail Blazers aren’t going to back down from a fight.