The Trailblazers arrived home from an awful road trip having lost four in a row, including a heartbreaking one point loss to the evil LA Clippers the night before. OKC is a good team and apparently the Blazers hadn't gotten back to Portland until 2 am so this second night of back-to-back games could have been a real bummer. But it wasn't! The Blazers kicked some ass and sent scowling Russell Westbrook and his pals packing with a decisive 114-95 win.

It was "Star Wars Night" at the Moda Center so there were several costumed characters walking around freaking people out and delighting nerdy kids. For some reason New York Yankees stars Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia were in the crowd as well. Just before tip-off it was announced that Al-Farouq Aminu would be sitting this one out due to a bruise on his backside from the LA game. This seemed ominous for the Blazers because Aminu is one of their better defenders and OKC's Russell Westbrook has been on a real tear this season racking up triple-doubles at a record pace. Sadly, the Blazers own the distinction of being the team that gives up the most triple doubles in the entire NBA. It wasn't looking good.

Indeed, the first quarter started off terribly with the Blazers missing open shots and Westbrook driving the lane at will. Noah Vonleh, usually a deep bench player, got the start in place of Aminu. He seemed nervous and tallied three fouls in less than five minutes of play. Giant Kiwi Pirate/Viking Steve Adams was having his way under the boards and the Thunder took an imposing 29-21 lead late in the first quarter.

But as soon as Westbrook sat for a break, the winds of fate took a nice turn for the Blazers. It turned out OKC was pretty much lost without him on the floor. Second unit guys like Alan Crabbe and Evan Turner brought in some energy and knocked down a few shots, and by the end of the first quarter the Blazers were actually up by a point. Few of us thought that would last though.

Here's an interesting fact about that game: Oklahoma City fielded two players born in Portland, sons of former Trailblazers stars. Rookie Damontas Sabonis, son of the great Arvydas Sabonis, and Jerami Grant, son of former Blazer Harvey Grant, both saw significant minutes on this night. They looked all right, but for OKC it really came down to Westbrook and his one-man show. Fortunately for the Blazers it wasn't one of those nights when Westbrook put the whole team on his back. The crowd was especially hostile to Westbrook, booing nearly every time he touched the ball, and Westbrook reciprocated by trash talking people in the stands, and at one point strangely chucking the ball at a group of fans. He claimed he was throwing the ball to the ref, but this seemed dubious. Later on he and Lillard got into a scrap because Westbrook kicked a dead ball out of his hands. It was hard to feel sorry for Russ on this night.

The Blazers led by 16 points at the half, 68-52, a nice lead, but no one at the Moda Center was counting their chickens. The Blazers had taken a lead at the half in each of their last four games, and then proceeded to lose them all. There was clearly still work to be done.

Luckily The Blazers were prepared to do it. Mason Plumlee, especially, came to play ball on this night. He ended up being the team's high scorer, with 18 points and 7 rebounds. The rest of the team spread the scoring around pretty evenly with six players in double figures. Interior defense continues to be a problem for this team and rumors of some kind of big-man trade are now swirling around the NBA. But at least the Blazers held off the prophets of doom a little longer with this must-win game. They looked good on this night, a bit like the team we all thought they would be before the season started, a freewheeling offensive juggernaut. Now they head off on another road trip, 3 games against 2 bad teams and one extremely good one. The Nuggets are up next on Thursday night, and then Saturday it's the Death Star incarnate team, Golden State Warriors. A win against them would really mean something. Use the the force, Blazers!