Blazers' Stars Get Early Rest In Historic Blowout Win Over Thunder
In wake of their most telling test of the season so far, the Trail Blazers looked like true title contenders. Too bad Portland can't face the league's only tanking team every time it takes of the floor.
Just 24 hours after being put in their place by Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, the Trail Blazers gave the depleted Oklahoma City Thunder a taste of that same medicine with a blowout 133-85 win at Moda Center. It's their biggest win of the season by 23 points, their biggest win altogether since October 2017 and tied for their second-biggest win in franchise history.
Not bad, right?
The result of this game, ridiculously lopsided as it proved, was still easy to see coming. Portland was its betting favorite by a whopping 12 points, a spread that seemed low considering the Thunder have their eyes squarely on the future while dealing with a rash of injuries to key building blocks. They straight-up sent a healthy Al Horford home last week. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley all missed Saturday's game with minor maladies.
The Blazers, by contrast, were near full-strength, and it showed just as much as their similarly gaping advantages in talent and experience.
Portland was up 22-6 with 3:38 left in the first quarter, a huge early lead mostly accounted for by the Thunder's seven turnovers – many of which were unforced. Eight Blazers scored in the first quarter alone, and Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Enes Kanter and Carmelo Anthony all reached double figures by halftime. Once Terry Stotts' starters came back on the floor for an extended period after intermission, a historic rout was officially and ruthlessly on.
Portland outscored Oklahoma City 30-4 during a seven-and-a-half minute stint in the third quarter, utterly dominating on both ends to forcefully put the game away. By the time Lillard, McCollum and Robert Covington joined Norman Powell and Jusuf Nurkic on the bench with the third-quarter clock at 3:50, the scoreboard read an eye-popping score of 95-54 – and their nights were finished.
McCollum paced the Blazers with 20 points, with Lillard and Anfernee Simons adding 16 apiece. Norman Powell, Nassir Little – active after missing three games with a thumb sprain – and Harry Giles III were also among eight Portland players who scored in double-digits. The Blazers shot 49 percent overall and went 20-of-46 on threes, outscoring the Thunder by 36 points from beyond the arc. Portland's 54 points in the paint were its second-most this season, and 22 fast-break points tied for its fourth-highest tally.
Lillard said as much after the loss to Milwaukee. His team hasn't struggled to beat bottom-dwellers this season; it's contenders that have given the Blazers problems.
The Thunder, obviously, fit a different one of those labels than the Bucks. But with Portland in the process of reintegrating McCollum and Nurkic while acclimating Powell, any win by such a massive margin is cause for encouragement.
What would be far more reason for optimism, though? The Blazers bucking a season-long trend and making a statement against the LA Clippers on Tuesday at Staples Center.