Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trailblazers Dream11 Prediction: Dream11 Fantasy Tips for GSW vs LAC as The SportsRush helps you with Dream11
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Portland Trailblazers lead the series 1-0 against the Thunder after weirdly coming into their first home game as the higher seed but still the underdogs. And then they went on to win the game with supposed weak link Enes Kanter playing 34 minutes. You just don’t know what to make of the Oklahoma City Thunder. They seem just as likely to be swept in the first round as they are of making the conference finals. Make of them what you will.
They could not press home the advantage of having a traditional big man and a full grown bully in Steven Adams against a Blazers that will not have Jusuf Nurkic for the series and were bullied by Kanter who got himself a 20 points and 18 rebounds as the Blazers broke a 0-10 losing streak in the playoffs after back to back sweeps in the past 2 seasons. The problem for Thunder remains the high usage rates for Westbrook and Paul George which is stopping them from truly exploiting the advantage they have against the defense of Enes Kanter.
Thunders and Trailblazers Form :
For Thunder Westbrook got himself a triple double. It is a real debate now, which is easier? Westbrook getting a triple double or a 27 year old Indian year old bachelor/bachelorette getting advise at a cousins wedding? Really close. Westbrook might not be efficient in his shooting (in fact if you go by true shooting percentage for players with over 1000 shots he is worst among all players), but that doesn’t really matter as long as he keeps delivering 24 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds the way he did in the first game.
There is some doubt about the fitness of Paul George and his injured shoulder. He has suffered from lack of consistency ever since he got the injury. He still got 26 points and 10 rebounds, but he just doesn’t look the same and his 3 point shooting was way off which cost the Thunder dearly. None of the other Thunder player had great games except for Steven Adams who had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist.
For Blazers 3 players stood way out over everyone else. Damian Lillard had a 30 point game (he only ever seems to underperform when I make him my star player, so no more of that) with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. CJ McCollum, the other half of the potent back court duo for the Blazers scored 26 and had 6 rebounds with 3 assists.
Surprisingly the third stand out for the Blazers was Enes Kanter who is actually a good rebounder and inside scorer, but given his porous defense wasn’t expected to play too many minutes, but Thunder’s mistake of not taking the attack to him, meant he took advantage of his skills and scored 20 points and grabbed 18 boards.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trailblazers Dream11 Prediction :
*Note: Both teams are extremely top heavy and statistically they have very few poor nights given their usage rates, so we are going extra heavy at the top and extra light at the bottom.
Heavy Top:
Damian Lillard (21 Cr)
Lillard is at the center of everything the Blazers do and after suffering the ignominy of a sweep last year he has worked on his game for this very style of playoff basketball and the results showed in game 1 where he got his 30 points without forcing anything and like Curry when Lillard has to force stuff results are more incredible than incredulous so expect him to get his 25+ points for the series and 5+ assists when his shots aren’t falling with that much frequency.
Russell Westbrook (24 Cr)
Man averages a triple double that is a mountain of points, so I am not justifying this pick no matter if my editor refuses to pay me for not doing my job. I have more faith in you than that. 25 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, thats the over/under stat line for Westbrook, so PICK HIM NOW! And make him your star player. Forever. Even is he’s not playing, pick him, he will find a way to steal rebounds from his teammates. He just will. #whynot
Paul George (21.5 Cr)
George looked like he was playing on a broken shoulder and he scored 26 points and 10 rebounds. That is 35+ points without costing his steals and blocks that he averages at around 2 and 0.8 for the season. Pick the man, irrespective of whether you like him or not. I am a Lakers fan so I despise the boy, (secretly like him for not falling into this Lakers mess) but I will never leave him off the team.
Steven Adams (14.5 Cr)
Adams did not take complete advantage of the Enes Kanter match-up but that will change trust me. He scored 17 points 4 points higher than his season average. He attempted 4 more shots than his season average. So its not like the Thunder didn’t do any of their homework at all. And one game in they know what they need to do more of and that is feed Adams more inside the paint to throw down on Enes Kanter. And the benefits are two fold. If Adams scores it is almost always off of a Westbrook assist to you get 3 points for every basket he makes.
Light Bottom (lol)
Raymond Felton (4 Cr)
Felton is a back up to the back up so the prayer you need for him to play is that one of Westbrook or Schroeder gets ejected early into the game. Do not pray for injuries you evil hags. That is not how we do things. Even then he is unlikely to get any more than a few points and assists. But he does help you get to that heavy top that will do more than enough for your team. What is your other choice? Mo Harkless at 10+ Cr to give you 10 points? No thank you.
Anefernee Simmons (3.5 Cr)
Simmons scored 38 points in the final game of the season that the Blazers were trying really hard to lose to avoid the Thunder in this series. He ruined that plan single handedly and if he plays he will wreck havoc.
Naah I am just kidding. He isn’t going to get any playing time unless as said before, ejection or injury. Even then he might not get a lot of minutes.
Myers Leonard (5.5 Cr)
Leonard actually might get more minutes if Kanter does take a beating like we expect him to so it makes sense to give him a shot albeit at a slightly higher price. To be upfront though, he played 5 minutes in the last game and got 0 rebounds and 0 assists to go with 1 POINT! Are you not excited when top heavy teams play each other? So many options to pick from the bottom that will all amount to a whole lot of nothing.
Zach Collins (6 Cr)
Finally I can end this. I love Zach Collins and I think he will be a fringe all-star one day. He plays hard, he can rebound, block, score inside and shoot the 3 ball. He isn’t great at all of those things right away, but he is capable and with missing Nurkic and an expected dip from Kanter coming, I would think Collins gets more minutes for sure and he can make a real difference at this price point with blocks, rebounds and points.
Star Player:
I TOLD YOU WESTBROOK, are you blind?
