3 Takeaways From OKC Thunder's Blowout Win Over Trail Blazers

The Oklahoma City Thunder won its sixth-straight game Friday night, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers at home in a 107-89 blowout affair.

Despite much of the Thunder roster being unavailable for the matchup — including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace — its bench unit stepped up to the task and defeated a struggling Trail Blazers team.

There wasn't a noticeable fall off in Oklahoma City's capabilities on both the offensive and defensive end, holding Portland to a night of poor shooting efficiency. Even if it was against a weaker opponent, it being able to come out with a large win showcases just how strong its roster is.

Here are three takeaways from the victory:

No Starters, No Problem

With such a large portion of the Thunder's roster deemed ineligible, there needed to be an equally large number of players that could step up in their place. That came to fruition, especially in regards to Aaron Wiggins.

Wiggins has given Oklahoma City several big performances this season, but last night was one of the best. He became the true No. 1 scoring option, finishing the game with 30 points, five rebounds and three assists on 13-of-26 shooting from the field. Despite shooting just 2-of-9 from 3-point range, attacking the inside helped him stack up points.

"Tonight where his role's expanded," coach Mark Daigneault said on Wiggins. "He's getting guarded by Camara, who is a very good defensive player that gives him a different look than he probably normally gets ... for him to still find it the way he did on a lot of possessions was impressive."

Beyond Wiggins, the Thunder got plenty of other performances to help steer the ship. Alex Caruso dropped 17 points and three steals off the bench, while Isaiah Joe and Ousmane Dieng each provided 16 points each.

Of course Oklahoma City isn't going to want to be without so many of its top players again, but at the very least, the bench unit prevented a rare occurrence from causing a loss.

Neutralizing The Trail Blazer Offense

Portland may have gotten 22 points out of Scoot Henderson and 19 out of Shaedon Sharpe, but as a whole, its offense largely struggled against an undermanned Thunder defensive unit.

Oklahoma City held the Trail Blazers to 34.7% shooting from the field and 18.6% from behind the arc. Jerami Grant could only muster up four points on 2-of-10 shooting, while Toumani Camara didn't fare any better with seven points on 2-of-13 shooting.

Anfernee Simons also struggled as the Thunder's personnel of defenders, scoring 14 points on a rough 5-of-16 clip from the field. If Portland's offensive performance was this bad without the likes of Dort and Holmgren, one could only imagine what it would've looked like with a fully-healthy roster.

Adding the 17 turnovers the Trail Blazers committed on top of that, it's a very clear picture of how Oklahoma City was able to jump out and get a big win.

A Sound System

Part of why the Thunder was able to still get a win without its starters simply comes down to the system and culture that Daigneault and the franchise has instilled.

Players such as Dillon Jones and Brendan Carlson don't typically receive much playing time if any, but even they were able to come in and play impactful minutes. That's a testament to how bought-in everyone is, and how easy it is for them to play at any time.

"A great program win for us. That's one that we can be really proud of as a complete program," Daigneault said." [It's] having the right guys. Those guys can all play, obviously. But also having a system in place where they can keep themselves confident and sharp."

Jaylin Williams — one of Oklahoma City's highest-energy players on the bench — went out against Portland and recorded a triple double of 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. He may not get big minutes all of the time, but he's one of many of its players that is always a vocal leader.

"The thing that builds chemistry is when people do invisible things that are investments in the team," Daigneault said.

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