The Thunder, who many people believe are the favorites in their series with the Blazers despite being the lower seed, lost a tight Game 1 in Portland. However, OKC can take some positives from the game and figure to respond in the next few games in the series.

Paul believes that they have reason to believe they can win the series because they were so close to victory in Game 1 despite an abysmal shooting performance and a stellar 20-point, 18-rebound effort from Blazers big man Enes Kanter.

“[They’re] already not a great three-point shooting team,” Pierce said. “But they can shoot better than [they did in Game 1]. OKC has to feel good, even though they lost, that they know that they can be [the Blazers].”