Blazers' Wild OT Win Shields Portland From Major Warning Sign

The Portland Trail Blazers were lucky in every sense that they were on the right side of a 134-133 overtime classic against the Sacramento Kings at the Moda Center on Thursday night. In truth, the refs bailed them out on the last shot, a wild Deni Avdija runner that was called a foul on Russell Westbrook with 1.5 seconds and gave the Israeli forward two free throws to win it.

After a 17-2 run by the Kings in the final two minutes to end the fourth quarter with a tie, the Blazers blew a six-point lead with 2:24 left in OT after DeMar DeRozan scored seven of his 33 points in the final 33 seconds.

This was a game Portland deserved to lose. Though Avdija had 35/5/5, it was crew chief Marc Davis who stole the show at the end of the game with a suspect foul call.

The win merely covered up a point this game proved long before Avdija shot those free throws he wasn't deserving of shooting.

Blazers Bench is a Weakness in Portland Right Now

There was one of the more extreme carry jobs in quite some time on Thursday night from the Blazers' starting lineup. Besides Avdija's offensive outburst, Shaedon Sharpe scored 26 points, Jerami Grant had 20, Donovan Clingan scored 19, and Toumani Camara had 17.

Though Kris Murray saved himself with five massive points in the first two and a half minutes of overtime, the rest of the bench had itself a weak night. Besides Murray, the bench shot 4/17 from the field. On most nights, that's not etching a win. All three Blazers who played double-digit minutes ended up with a negative BPM. Sidy Cissoko was a -12, while Murray was a -18.

Things will improve significantly when Jrue Holiday comes back, though it's not clear yet who will go to the bench. Sharpe was Holiday's understudy before the injury, but he may be too good to stow away on the bench again. Not to mention, Holiday knew he'd be aiding young players in a rebuild, not playing over them.

Portland got away with one against Sacramento, and it's going to hide the Blazers' depth issue from as much scrutiny as it deserves, for now.

It won't get lucky like this consistently if their bench can't support their starters like they didn't against the Kings.