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Bruce Ely/Trailblazers.com

The Blazers lost a hotly contested overtime battle against rival Oklahoma City on Thursday night. The nationally televised showdown between the two teams tied for 3rd place in the Western conference was everything it was advertised to be and more. Throughout the game, neither team led by more than eight points and there were 23 lead changes and 16 ties. Damian Lillard scored a whopping 51 points and CJ McCollum added 25 of his own. But Russell Westbrook and Paul George combined for 69 points and a wild, late-game ejection of Portland Center Jusuf Nurkic left the Blazers at a disadvantage in overtime. Final score 129-121.

There was a lot riding on this game as both teams are now seen as outside contenders for the western conference championship. In fact, at halftime TNT commentator Charles Barkley declared that Portland was headed to the NBA finals this year, a bold prediction indeed:

The Moda Center was rocking from the start as fans relished the clash between all-star point guards Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook. Westbrook jawed with the crowd constantly and was booed loudly every time he touched the ball. Though Westbrook's grudge with Lillard is well-known, it was Jusuf Nurkic who found himself tangling with old Russ early on. In what would turn out to be a crucial play, Nurkic seemed to intentionally trip Westbrook on the way up the court, and Westbrook retaliated by checking Nurkic to the ground. Both players received technical fouls. Here's video of the sequence:

This play served to ratchet up the intensity, but it also had a huge effect on the game later on when Nurkic received another technical foul and was therefore ejected from the game. That ejection was perhaps the biggest play of the game, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here. As mentioned, the whole contest was a barnburner, close throughout and OKC led by two points at halftime. All signs pointed to a tight finish. Here's a quick look at the some of the fans in hallways during the break:

Sweet facepaint:

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Rip City couple:
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Divided loyalties:
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Killer style:
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Cool Mom/Cool Son:
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The second half brought much of the same drama as the first. Paul George and Russell Westbrook were nearly unstoppable, but Lillard put on a show of his own, driving relentlessly to the hoop, and torching OKC with a set of step-back three pointers in the fourth quarter. Lillard tried to involve his teammates, dishing out to the wings at times, but the shots weren't falling for role players like Layman, Aminu, and Rodney Hood. New Center Enes Kanter got a nice ovation from the crowd when he came in, but he wasn't able to hold down the middle the way Nurkic had. And this was one of several reasons that ejection stung so badly.

With only 4 seconds on the clock, and the Blazers down by two points, Nurkic grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled hard. As Nurkic walked to the line to take his two shots, Paul George said something and Nurkic turned and head butted him, a stupid move, because he already had one technical foul and this second one resulted in his ejection from the game. Here's video of the sequence:

Nurkic was supposed to shoot free throws, but due to his ejection OKC was allowed to choose any Blazer player to shoot in his place. They chose brand new, deep bench, back-up forward Skal Labissierre. Poor Skal, who hadn't expected to play at all, was suddenly thrust into the most critical moment of the game. If he made both shots, he'd be the hero, tying the game with seconds remaining. If he missed either one, the Blazers would likely lose.

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Bruce Ely/Trailblazers.com

Skal missed both of his free throws, a disaster. But wait! In a bizarre twist, OKC fouled Al-Farouq Aminu as they fought for the rebound and Aminu was awarded two more free throws. He made them both and sent the game into overtime.

The crowd was hopeful, and Lillard appeared ready to put the team on his back, hitting one unlikely shot after another on his way to a game-high 51 points. But boy the the Blazers missed Nurkic's defense in the middle. OKC powered their way to a 8-0 run and that essentially put the Blazers away. It was a highly entertaining game, and certainly set the stage for a great series should these two teams meet in the playoffs. But Portland should hope that doesn't happen. Unfortunately, it appears that OKC has their number. Fun as each game was, they swept the season series 4-0.

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Bruce Ely/Trailblazers.com

With this loss, Portland falls to 5th place in the West. They play the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, a relatively weak team who they should, and need to, beat.