Some Good Hate Brewing Between Thunder, Blazers

Ever since the Thunder pitched camp in Oklahoma City fans and media have been searching for a rival.

Maybe Dallas or San Antonio since they're close. Maybe Miami because of The Finals. Perhaps Houston because of James Harden and Oklahoma City public enemy #1 Patrick Beverley, or maybe Memphis because of those gritty and grinding playoff series.

But maybe we should have looked backwards toward the past instead of forward to find the future rival.

When the Thunder were known as the Sonics and played in Seattle, Portland was THE heated and hated rival.

Now with what's brewing between the Thunder and the Trail Blazers maybe the rival for this franchise is still Portland.

After all, they play in the same division and this season they may very well meet in the playoffs.

The four games played in the regular season were split right down the middle, two for OKC and two for PDX (that's Portland in airport lingo), and each won a game and lost a game on the other's home floor.

All four games have been chippy and the players and coaches have been chirpy. 

Last night both head coaches, Scott Brooks and Terry Stotts, were whistled for technicals and both Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka were T'd up too.

There was pushing and shoving and jawing and the talking continued even after the game.

Durant told reporters, "We respect this team and they respect us, but we don't like this team and they don't like us. That's point blank."

Moments later, down the hall in the Trail Blazers locker room, Durant's fellow University of Texas alum LaMarcus Aldridge didn't try to cool things off.

"We don't care to like them, we're not trying to make friends out there, we're trying to win games."

Amen to that brother.

Hearing that kind of talk and seeing the kind of games these two teams have played four times so far this season kind of makes you wish we didn't have to wait until probably late May or so to see a rematch.