On Friday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder secured a 111-109 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers. Following the tightly contested win, Thunder star Russell Westbrook explained why this was anything but a routine victory for him.

As pointed out by ESPN's Royce Young, Westbrook was extra motivated coming into the contest given the fact that the Thunder had never defeated the Blazers on their home court in nearly five years. This definitely made things very interesting for an overly competitive guy like Westbrook.

“I thought about that yesterday when I landed,” he said Friday. “Hell yeah. So, it's a personal thing for me.”

Apparently, Westbrook never forgets. He clearly remembers the last time his team tasted victory in Portland.

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“Two thousand fourteen,” Westbrook said, naming the year when the Thunder most recently won in Portland. “We haven't won in here in a while. I know Nick [Collison] is at home if he's watching, he'll probably be happy we finally won here.”

It was definitely a nice touch for Westbrook to dedicate the hard-earned victory to former teammate and franchise legend Nick Collison.

Russell Westbrook went on a tear against Damian Lillard and co., scoring 31 big points on 13-of-28 shooting. The former MVP flirted with yet another triple-double with nine rebounds and seven assists on the evening. Westbrook rounded out his remarkable performance by going 5-of-6 from the line (he is currently shooting a career-low 63.3 percent from the stripe) and turning the ball over only three times (vs. his season average of 4.6 turnovers per contest).