Blazers Drenched by Stormy Second Half vs. Thunder

The Portland Trail Blazers played a great second quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Unfortunately, scoring 44 in a frame wasn’t enough to stop the Best in the West. Oklahoma City came out of the locker room to throttle the Blazers, forcing turnovers and running out with abandon. The result was a 137-114 victory for the Thunder.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 30 points on 12-18 shooting. Jerami Grant led the Blazers with 17.

Here are some of the factors that determined the outcome of the game.

Preliminary Objection

Before we even start, there should be some rule that the visiting team can’t choose uniforms that clash with the home team’s floor with the same effect as taking a cheese grater to your optical nerves for 48 minutes. Just sayin’, Thunder.

Super Easy Scoring

The Thunder starting lineup, 1-5, knew exactly where and how they wanted to score tonight. Basically anything the Blazers’ defense gave them, they were ready to take advantage of. Go under screens on the three? They’d hit it. Leave SGA in single coverage? Within two seconds he was in the lane. Pack the middle? To the wings the ball went for an open jumper. That kind of firepower is scary. Portland just doesn’t have it.

Deni Avdija

In the latest episode of the Trail Daddy podcast, I talked a little about Deni Avidja and his offensive woes. Basically, he continues to look for the pass, but opponents are playing him that way. They’re turning him into a one-on-one scorer. He’s just not. Deni had 11 points on 5-10 shooting from the field tonight, in part because he shook free for other types of scoring.

When the Blazers did let Avdija run the ball down the floor and key the offense from the center, he returned to better form. He really shined when he received the ball on the break or the weak side. If he has room in front of him, he’s good at converting.

Getting Avdija rolling while keeping the guards productive will be one of the riddles Portland will need to solve this year.

Still, one wonders if Deni isn’t a candidate to hit the bench when Shaedon Sharpe returns from injury. Charitably, he’s equally capable of affecting the game as a starter or reserve. Less charitably, the Blazers just need more offense right now than Deni can provide, even on good nights like this.

Screens

Screens provided a huge advantage for OKC tonight. Simply put, they set them strongly and effectively and use them with minute precision. It’s pretty amazing to see the most obvious and ubiquitous play in NBA basketball produces consistent results just because the Thunder dribblers wait for the screen to be set solidly, then brush right by the screener, leaving no daylight for Portland defenders. The old-school Utah Jazz used to play like that. Guess what? It still works, even against an improved Blazers defense.

Portland eventually tried to work around, switching their lineup. That kept them from trailing behind screens quite so much. But as soon as the Thunder saw the switch, they were ready to exploit mismatches, taking smaller players inside and drawing centers to the three-point arc.

It should be noted that the Thunder are the youngest team in the NBA right now. Portland’s excuses about being young kind of evaporate in the face of OKC’s pristine execution. It’s not just age. It’s talent, trust, attention to detail, and coaching.

Threes and the Third

One of the other things we mentioned in the Trail Daddy podcast was that both of Portland’s wins this season featured the same trend: 40% or greater shooting from the arc. Tonight they stayed even with the Thunder for a half via that exact mechanism. When the three disappeared, though, so did their chances of winning. The Blazers attempted only two threes in the third period. They also committed a bevy of turnovers, getting off only 12 shots total. That led to a 21-point Thunder advantage in the frame off of a tied score at the half.

When Portland started the fourth by missing 6 of their first 7 threes, that was all she wrote.

The Blazers ended up shooting 15-35, 42.9%, from the arc tonight based on the first half flurry. Oklahoma City shot just 38.8%, but off of 49 total attempts beyond the arc, that was good for 19 makes, 4 more than the Blazers managed.

Free Throws

No matter how bad things got, the Blazers carried one big advantage tonight. They feasted on foul shots, in part due to their dedication to getting the ball inside, in part because it was just one of those nights. The Blazers made 21 of 31 foul shots. The Thunder attempted just 19, hitting 16.

It should be noted that the referees changed their tune in the third period after OKC started complaining vociferously. Losing that edge didn’t cause Portland’s collapse, but it sure cemented it.

Brute Force the Solution

That last paragraph pretty much shows how the Thunder addressed Portland’s threat. Sometimes you develop a nifty algorithm to puzzle out a solution to a thorny problem. Other times you just tell the computer to run trial after trial until it hits on the right answers. The latter approach proved beneficial for OKC tonight.

Portland shot 47% from the field and the aforementioned 43% from the three-point arc, both more than adequate to produce victory on a normal night. They got blown out instead because the Thunder attempted 95 shots to 83 for the Blazers while Portland committed 19 turnovers, including 6 from Avdija. 12 extra attempts from the floor, 14 from the arc, proved too much for Portland to compensate for.

Rayan Rupert

We haven’t gotten to mention many of the deeper bench players for Portland this year, but let’s give some credit to Rayan Rupert. He shot quickly and decisively on his way to 14 points on 4-7 shooting from distance. Rupert looked every bit a rotation player tonight.

Feeding Ayton

Deandre Ayton was one of Portland’s lone bright spots in the third period when he found shots at the rim off of feeds and lobs. This proved a bit of a curse, too. Oklahoma City smelled out the tactic and eventually cut off passes before they arrived, leaving Portland futilely tossing the ball low only to find fumbles and interceptions. It’s still encouraging to see Ayton go inside while the guards find him. I shot 7-11 from the field for 14 points. He had only 5 boards, but Thunder star Chet Holmgren played just 18 minutes with 6 points and 1 rebound. (To be fair, Holmgren had an incredible 5 blocks in that short time. Wow.)

Up Next

Boxscore

The Blazers travel to Phoenix to face the Suns tomorrow night at 7:00 PM, Pacific. Buckle up.