Sam Presti said he anticipates Billy Donovan to return as head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder next season.

"We anticipate Billy [Donovan] being back," said Presti.

Presti was asked to clarify what he meant by the qualifier "anticipate."

"I wouldn't expect anything to change," he said. "I haven't had the chance to sit down with him. I do think getting his perspective on things is important because there's nobody that works harder than him. If anything, I think he needs to take some time to think through the season himself and have a really good conversation."

Donovan completed his fourth season as head coach of the Thunder. The Thunder haven't won a playoff series since Kevin Durant left in free agency in 2016.

Presti took accountability for not having enough depth behind Alex Abrines on the wing following his departure for personal reasons.

Russell Westbrook has avoided questions by Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel since January, but he answered a question from him during Thursday's end-of-season exit interview.

Tramel asked Westbrook if he's made the triple double "passé."

Westbrook has averaged a triple double for three straight seasons.

"I just play, man. That's it. If it's passé, so be it. It's okay. Let somebody else do it, or try to."

Russell Westbrook tried to move past criticism he has received for yet another first round exit since the departure of Kevin Durant from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"If you want to determine my career and what I've done over two, three games, you go ahead," Westbrook said during his end-of-season exit interview with the media. "That don't mean s--- to me. It doesn't. I'm going to wake up, like I told you before, three beautiful kids, I'm going to wake up and smile, be happy, enjoy my life. Doesn't change anything about -- talk about if I'm playing bad or who's better, who's not. I know who I am as a person, and that's the biggest thing I can say about myself. I know who I am. I know what I'm able to do. I know my capabilities. I know what I've done. I know what I can and can't do. So I'm OK with that. I'm OK with who I am. I'll just be blessed to wake up every day and enjoy my life. The talk about -- I don't even know what talk you're talking about, but whatever that is, you guys can keep talking about it, and I'm going to keep living my life."

As he did in the regular season, Westbrook struggled with his shooting.

"There used to be conversations if I was a ball hog, but now I lead the league in assists for the past three years or whatever it is, that's getting squashed out," he said. "So now the conversation is about shooting. Next year I'm going to become a better shooter. After that it'll be probably, f---, my left foot is bigger than my right one. Who knows.

"So that's why, back to your point, I don't really care what people say, what they think about me, because it doesn't really matter. I know what I'm able to do and know what I'm able to do at a high level every night, and nobody else can do what I can do on a night-in, night-out basis, and I truly believe that. If they could, I'm pretty sure they would. But I know for a fact that nobody can."

Westbrook spoke with reporters for nearly 17 minutes.

"When you do so much at a high level, a lot of haters come," Westbrook said. "That's how life is, man. That's life, man. When you do so much, people going to try to pull and take away and try to take that away from you. But nobody can take away from me. I've been blessed, and I stay prayerful, stay thankful to be able to do what I'm able to do, and nobody can ever take that away from me, regardless of what it is, how many stories are written, how many stats are put up, how many numbers are put up."

Marcus Morris criticized the Oklahoma City Thunder coaches for how they defended Damian Lillard on his buzzer-beater to win the series, and for not believing in Markieff Morris.

"You don’t trap him, you don’t do nothing. You just let him play free. He’s one of the best players in the league. Why wouldn’t you trap him? Why wouldn’t you get the ball out of his hands? I’m not a coach and I’m not trying to disregard what (Lillard is) doing, but 50? Like, come on. And you don’t trap him? At the end of the game you just let him (shoot)? I don’t care how far out he is. He was shooting damn near 60 percent from where he was shooting at, so I wasn’t surprised it went in,” said Morris about the Thunder leaving Paul George to defend Lillard on the game-winner.

He then added that the Thunder didn't give Markieff a chance to give the Blazers a different look off the bench.

“I feel like they got outcoached...And I’m not a coach or anything like that, but I feel like they just didn’t utilize their bench enough. I feel like my brother went over there for no reason. He never got an opportunity to play. I thought that he would really help them in the playoffs, but from what I seen he should have went somewhere else just to be able to show that veteran leadership and that experience. I didn’t think he got the opportunity in OKC. I think that was another big reason why they lost. I didn’t feel like they utilized all the guys they had – at all. In the NBA, these are all NBA players. And I wouldn’t even pay attention to them as much if he wasn’t on the team. I wouldn’t even really care how they coached. I don’t give a damn if they lost or won, but just the fact that he’s my brother and I know what he brings to the table, I know what we both bring to the table, I felt like OKC didn’t do him no justice," added Morris.

During Wednesday's episode of The Lowe Post, Kevin Arnovitz asked Zach Lowe if the contract of Russell Westbrook has the contract second least favorable to his team in the NBA after John Wall.

"I had this conversation with an executive I really, really respect," said Lowe. "I mean I respect all of them, but a guy I think is particularly good. Three months ago over dinner in anonymous city X and he ranked it No. 2... before this.

"And let's not mince words. This playoff run, it's not a run, this playoff fall is a disaster for Russell Westbrook. A disaster.

"He shot, I think 36 percent from the field, much worse than that from three-point range. He was the worst pull-up jump shooter in the entire NBA this year. The worst statistically. 104 guys took at least three pull-ups per game. He was No. 104.

"Interestingly, he shot 65 percent at the rim, which is his best figure ever. But then you have these games where he's just throwing (expletive) up at the backboard."

Lowe went on to further analyze Westbrook's game, particularly his lack of effort on defense and his inefficient shooting.

"This is a disastrous playoff run for him," said Lowe. "I don't know what you do because you're looking at the contract. To answer your question, I think only John Wall's is worse. 

"$38 million next year, $41 million, $44 million, $47 million.

"Sam Presti has done magic spinning all of these bad contracts into players that help the team. That musical chairs is going to stop at some point"

Lowe also posits that there won't be much of a market to trade Steven Adams.

Paul George managed to contest Damian Lillard's shocking 37-foot buzzer beater to close out their first round series.

“Tip my hat off to the shots he made," said George. "Tough ones. It was his night.”

George was then asked if there's anything to be done to defend a 37-foot shot.

"That's a bad, bad shot," said George. "I don't care what anybody says. That's a bad shot. But hey, he made it. That story won't be told that it was a bad shot. We live with that."

Lillard explained his thought process leading to the shot.

“I didn’t want to put it in the referee’s hands – where if there was contact and maybe they get away with contact or I end up having to take a tougher shot because there’s contact and they don’t want to decide the game," said Lillard. "When I was standing there, I was like I’m going to shoot it. He was a little bit off of me and I was like this is enough space for me to just raise up and shoot it for game. At the last second, he stepped towards me a little bit and I was like, okay I’m going to pound-dribble, side-step and raise up. I just had to let it fly, shoot the ball high in the air to give it a chance and that’s what I did."

Lillard responded to George's comments later to Chris Haynes of Yhoo! Sports.

“It’s a bad shot, but I was 8-of-12 from 30-plus feet in the series and I work on it regularly. ... It wasn’t a bad shot tonight,” said Lillard.

Steve Kerr believes Russell Westbrook's "no comment" approach in dealing with Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman could become a dangerous precedent for the NBA. 

“I just feel that we have to be very careful as a league,” Kerr said. “We’re in a good place right now. Very popular. Fans love the game, the social dynamic, the fashion. But more than anything they love the connection they feel to the players. I think it’s important for the players to understand that it’s a key dynamic to this league. I don’t think this is a healthy dynamic, for this league, for any player, any team, any local media, any national media.”

Kerr views the complete avoidance of communication as different than uninspired responses to questions.

“It’s all part of the business,” Kerr said. “You’ve got to feed information to the fans. You don’t have to give a great answer, but it’s dangerous when you go down that path of no communication because one of the reasons people like the league right now is we have a lot of great players, really good guys who handle themselves well. So don’t kill that. You’ve got to keep that going. That’s a big part of the business.”

Hamidou Diallo underwent a successful arthroscopic procedure on his right elbow.

The procedure was performed by Dr. David Altchek with Thunder medical personnel present at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

During the 2018-19 season, Diallo appeared in 51 games for the Thunder and averaged 3.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game. 

Diallo is expected to return to basketball-related activities in approximately four weeks.

Paul George said he plans on playing in game 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers despite a shoulder injury.

"It's playoff time, so it's more than this, it's about being out there with my guys. As much as I can get it a hundred as possible, or close to it, you can expect me out there Sunday," said George. 

George has been battling soreness in both shoulders for some time. He is officially listed as day-to-day. 

Damian Lillard admitted that there was a tension between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of their first round playoff matchup. 

The Blazers secured the 3rd seed following a comeback win against the Kings. The Thunder clinched the 6 seed after beating the Bucks.

The Thunder swept the season series between the two teams 4-0, with games filled with heated moments.

"There's something there. There's something there," said Lillard.