Trail Blazers-Thunder Preview

By JEFF BARTL

(AP) -- Damian Lillard became the face of the Portland Trail Blazers the moment LaMarcus Aldridge bolted in free agency, a defection that left Lillard with the task of taking on more responsibility for a team undergoing plenty of adjustment.

Getting contributions from up and down the roster helps ease that transition, just as the Oklahoma City Thunder experience their most success when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook complement each other.

The Blazers still have a lot of work to do in order to reach that level, and they'll see it first hand when they visit the surging Thunder on Wednesday night.

Lillard has increased his scoring average from 21.0 points per game last season to 24.7 while having the ball in his hands more than during his first three years, when Aldridge often stood as the first option offensively.

Portland (11-15), though, isn't winning at the same rate with a revamped roster that also lost Wesley Matthews to Dallas in the offseason. C.J. McCollum started three games in his first two seasons but has become Lillard's backcourt sidekick, averaging 19.7 points after scoring 6.8 per game in less than half the minutes he's receiving this year.

Lillard scored 30 points and McCollum added 16 to help the Blazers beat New Orleans 105-101 on Monday.

"I think for me and (McCollum), that's something that we got to do a lot of this year - make guys better and put guys in a position to be successful," Lillard said.

They did that with newcomers Gerald Henderson and Mason Plumlee against the Pelicans. Henderson hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with 19 points off the bench, and Plumlee had 15, 13 rebounds and six assists.

"We've seen so many guys step up in different games," Lillard said. "(It) shows that down the line when we grow and kind of put this thing together a little bit more, we see what guys can do now so we see how it can payoff later."

Even Durant and Westbrook didn't hit it off immediately. The Thunder finished 23-59 in Westbrook's rookie season of 2008-09 before they began building off each other's strengths to make a run to the NBA Finals just three years later.

Oklahoma City missed the playoffs last season with Durant sitting out 55 games due to injury, but it is beginning to click now with him healthy. The Thunder (16-8) have won five straight after sweeping a home-and-home with Utah, including Sunday's 104-98 overtime victory.

Durant scored 29 of his 31 points after halftime, and Westbrook finished with 25, 11 rebounds and five assists to help the Thunder overcome a 16-point deficit.

"To start that third quarter, we were a different team than we were to start the game," first-year coach Billy Donovan said. "We expended a lot of energy. Emotionally we played at a really high level."

Durant admitted to being too emotional during the first half, when he took only two shots.

"I was getting a little frustrated with myself and I just had to calm down," Durant said. "At halftime, I just told myself to calm down and go get the ball and try to score. That's what opened it up for my teammates."

Westbrook had 36 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as the Thunder fell 101-90 in the last meeting against Portland on April 13 without an injured Durant.

Lillard scored only 10 points but Meyers Leonard had a career-high 24.