Thunder Secure League-Leading NBA Record in Win vs Blazers, 118-108
Ever since that shot by Damian Lillard that sent the Thunder home at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers back in 2019, nothing has been the same for the two teams as the Thunder now clinched its 15th win in a row against Portland in a 118-108 victory at the Moda Center. OKC is now 18-4 since Lillard waved the Thunder “goodbye” in the Playoffs.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped a casual 33 points to lead the way for the Thunder, who now have seized a full-game lead over the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers for the best record in the NBA at 37-8. OKC has won seven of its last 10 games, and leads the Western Conference by a margin of 6.5 games next to the second and third seeds.
Portland put up a fight for most of the game, staying close to OKC and even starting the first quarter strong with a promising set of performances from three, which says a lot about how their rebuild progress has been so far. But eventually, playing against the first seed and the best team in the NBA has its ups and downs, and the Thunder made it look easy to overcome a tight game.
Still Not Growing
Deni Avdija was looking like a star for the Trail Blazers as he led the team in scoring, finishing with a near triple-double of 28 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. He drilled four threes in the losing effort and led much of the Blazers’ offense. Scoot Henderson scored 25 points but was a -15 in the game as he bricked too many threes late in the game that cost the Blazers a close game.
Portland was missing some of its key players due to injuries, but rookie center Donovan Clingan made his return in hopes of making an impact for the team. However, he was limited to just four points, six rebounds, and two blocks. Backup center Robert Williams III had 10 rebounds but scored only one point and shot 0-4 in the game, as with Clingan.
Toumani Camara was making things interesting for the Blazers, who drilled all of his five shots from three. After OKC had a huge lead coming off a 39-26 rally in the second quarter, the Blazers cut the lead to just 93-88 in the fourth. However, the Thunder countered with a three from Jalen Williams to make it 96-88, and another three from Alex Caruso in the corner made it 105-90 to keep the game away.
An OKC Game All-Around
OKC started slow and was down 14-4 to begin the game, but as usual, the Thunder came alive and ended the first quarter in a 27-27 tie before going off for the rest of the game, showing how well they settled down and got comfortable. Isaiah Hartenstein and Isaiah Joe made their returns after missing a few sets of games with injuries.
The Thunder controlled the game, outscoring the Blazers 52-22 and 28-13 on second-chance points while leading by as many as 19 points. OKC had 24 assists and forced a total of 15 turnovers against the Blazers. The Thunder also made 18 threes en route to the win.
Jalen Williams also built an impressive All-Star game for himself, finishing with 24 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the win. Isaiah Joe scored 16 points in his return, while Hartenstein notched another double-double with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists on 5-6 shooting from the field.
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