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Blazers' surge scuttles Thunder

Feb 12, 2009 - 6:17 AM PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- The Portland Trail Blazers played the same old song and dance on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

The Trail Blazers downed the pesky Thunder, 106-92, behind 22 points, six rebounds and five assists from Brandon Roy.

"We played harder than they did tonight," Roy said. "They outscrapped us in their building and tonight we played harder than they did and that was the biggest difference."

Oklahoma City hung and clung around for most of the game before Portland went on a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter to create some breathing room at 94-78.

After a basket by Earl Watson snapped the surge, Portland came down and Travis Outlaw threw down a dunk off a feed from Rudy Fernandez, causing Thunder coach Scott Brooks to call time with seven minutes left and the score at 96-78.

"We battled and we did a good job defensively but we didn't do one thing well all night and that was giving them offensive rebounds," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "The second half they got 12.

"... I thought we had pretty good shots tonight. They just didn't fall. Those things happen. Kevin (Durant) and Jeff (Green) did not have a good shooting night."

The loss came a day after the Thunder played the Los Angeles Lakers tough before finally wearing down and falling, 105-98. While the margin of victory was larger for the Blazers, the road to defeat followed the same formula.

The Blazers went on a 9-0 run at the end of the second quarter to take a 53-46 lead.

They weren't able to shake the Thunder until the burst in the fourth quarter, however.

Nenad Krstic hit a 21-foot jumper to bring Oklahoma City within 80-76 early in the fourth quarter before the Blazers caught fire.

Over the next three minutes, they stymied the Thunder while running and stunning them. Fernandez scored seven points and capped the surge with a long 3-point shot.

"Really, we just wanted to play with some energy, play hard on defense and make sure they weren't scoring," Blazers center Greg Oden said. "We wanted to keep moving the ball like we did. We wanted to be physical and not let them get their stuff.

"The last game they embarrassed us. We let them run whatever they wanted to. We wanted to get into them and not let them this time. It's a rivalry and people will make it a rivalry for a long time. At least this win, they aren't dominating."

Russell Westbrook led the Thunder with 21 points. Durant scored 20 points but saw his streak of 30-plus point games snapped at five.

Oden, chosen before Durant in the 2007 NBA draft, had 16 points and 10 rebounds as Portland turned the tables on Oklahoma City, which had knocked off the Blazers, 102-93, on February 6.

"It's just Portland against the Thunder," Oden said.

Travis Outlaw added 16 points, Fernandez scored 13 and Jerryd Bayless netted 12 all off the bench for Portland.