Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets tonight!
It took a while, but the Portland Trail Blazers finally know which team they’re going to face in the Western Conference Semifinals. After having a few days off since advancing to the second round by way of eliminating the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games, the Trail Blazers found out Saturday night that they would be facing the Denver Nuggets, winner of the two-seven matchup versus the Spurs in seven games, with Game 1 scheduled for Monday at the Pepsi Center.
Much like their first round series, the Trail Blazers find themselves going up against a team they struggled to best this season, even if all of the results were closely contested. Denver won three of the four matchups this season, with the one contest that Portland won coming in a game that saw the Nuggets rest the majority of their starting lineup. What’s more, Portland had lost six-straight to Denver prior to their lone win this season.
Considering how the regular season played out and the fact the Trail Blazers are banged up at the center position — Enes Kanter is questionable with a left shoulder injury and Jusuf Nurkic (left leg) is out for the foreseeable future — while Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is, regardless of position, one of the best and most versatile players in the NBA, the matchup is sure to be a difficult one for Rip City.
“Deja vu all over again,” Mariners manager Scott Servais noted after his club got thumped, 14-1, by the Rangers on Sunday.
Coming on the heels of a 15-1 drubbing the night before, it was a rapid regression for a Seattle team that had come into Saturday with the best run differential in the Majors at plus-41.
For much of the first month of this season, the Mariners overcame shortcomings in the pitching and defense departments by outscoring opponents. But that formula ran dry this weekend — as did Seattle’s offense — as Texas teed off in the two games.
Four errors and 17 hits allowed added up to a rough day for rookie right-hander Erik Swanson and five relievers as the Rangers took the series finale and left town feeling much better than one would expect from a four-game split.
In college baseball at Kiger Stadium over the weekend, Lewis-Clark State (34-13-1, 24-8 NAIA-W) defeated Oregon Tech 12-7 in the fourth and final game of the NAIA –West series at Kiger Stadium.
The loss ended the Owls season at 13-38, and 7-25 in the NAIA-W. Before the game OIT honored their eight seniors: Ben Hood, Josh Kallstrom, John Schulz, Kai Fong, Austin Zavala, Austin Florez, Logan Nousen, and Tristan Shea.
In softball, No. 10 Oregon Tech (38-12, 23-4 CCC) downed Eastern Oregon (12-32, 7-20 CCC) 6-1 in game one Saturday sweeping the three game conference portion of the series.
EOU won game two on Saturday a non-conference game 7-6 at Peggy Anderson Field.
