[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (6-9) fall to The OKC Thunder (12-4) 99-109

44 comments

  1. I hesitate to throw out the term “moral victories”, but it definitely feels like we’ve exorcised some demons after the beatdowns OKC gave us last season. Nice to see that our defense can match up with the best of them.

  2. Honestly the game was a guaranteed L playing in that town, but I love the effort we’re seeing from these guys.

  10. Really missed Scoot in the 4th quarter.  Toumani was amazing.  Great loss all around, I’m loving this team.  

  11. Looks to me like we have a very real (and good) identity on defense. Still need to figure it out on the offensive end. End of the game was essentially let Shae go ISO – need more creativity on that end.

    But I LOVE to see this team developing a defensive identity.

  16. Had to watch intermittently with the sound off. Why were Grant and Banton in at the end of the game when the other high-minute players got pulled?

  17. I’ll take the loss. We gave up a bit in the end but also had eight men on the floor against us. Sloppy fourth that I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from.

  22. Disappointed ending. I thought it was an OK tank game but some red flags.

    Shaedon really needs to tighten his handle going to his left.

    Advjia and Banton have different versions of tunnel vision.

    We missed Scoot when he went out, we needed his playmaking.

  23. We outshot them and grabbed more boards. Unfortunately we coughed up the ball 10x more times which allowed them to score 11 more points off of turnovers. That was the difference in the game. Loved the effort though, especially on D. It’s so refreshing to watch a team that hustles and plays D. (Side note: Jalen Williams is a beast)

  24. These are the kinds of losses I can live with. The guys came out and battled hard til the end. Just didn’t go our way. Anyone who says we gave up or didn’t try wasn’t watching Toumani.

  25. Overall pretty okay game, definitely need to work on turnovers (aka shaedon needs to tighten up his handle asap), but otherwise liked what i saw. Defense was great all night and i especially loved toumani and clingans impact, was kinda shocked to not see clingan more tbh. It was very obvious how thin we are on legitimate nba playmakers when scoot went out, just almost impossible to get anything going. Although i did really like what i saw from deni tonight, hope he gets more opportunities to play make.

  26. High quality tank loss. I hate the Thunder for being this good with this many young players. Plus they haven’t been healthy

  30. Sharpe needs to stop jumping into 2 guys trying to score in traffic and start shooting midrange jumpers to avoid not getting calls when teams play physical defense

  31. Bummer result but 22 turnovers and we still kept it close deep into the fourth quarter.

    Sad that Jabari is hardly playing this season. Seemed like he got a little bigger and was coming off good experience last season. I’d love for him, Rupert, Murray, and Duop to get a little bit of time but obviously not everyone can play every night.

  34. At one point, OKC was +17 in field goal attempts. You’ll have a hard time winning games with that disparity in shot attempts.

  35. If I were OKC then I’d be worried after a performance like that.

    We basically locked them up pretty hard because we got a great matchup against them (athletic and quick players in 4 of the spots). They struggled to move the ball around as they usually do, and without Hartenstein they were nearly hopeless (with some SGA brilliances).

    We had a better ball movement in the 2nd half, but overally it is still our major flaw, alongside the set plays (which were horrible in the 1st half).

    That set play to Donovan Clingan corner 3 was nice (I think we did to Ayton this season as well) – it was an obvious set play off the inbound, since it didn’t make sense what-so-ever for DC to be there in the 1st place, on the inbound (not setting screens or anything).

    Making the 3-pointers will help us a lot.

    Without Deni on the floor, we have a lot of issues in regards to ball movement and making plays (Banton didn’t do well in that term, tonight).

    I think these kind of games are much needed, as we can learn so much more about our team in comprison to a really good team, who got a similar defensive style to ours.

    We’re 6-9 now, which is now.

    I wish a speedy recovery to Scoot Henderson.

  36. An off night for the boys, but we still hung in there. Loving how no matter what, Toumani is going to make a star player’s life difficult when he guards them. Mani’s development will probably go under the radar because a large share of attention is going to be paid to Scoot and Shae respectively, but man has watching Toumani this season been a joy.

    On to Houston!

  37. Too many turnovers and giving away offensive rebounds. But mostly just annoyed were not getting Nuggets tomorrow. Ir was a fine game against a legitimately great team.

  39. That felt like a let down game for Shaedon, only really the 3PT shooting that was on. Still managed 21 on 16 shots and took responsibility to create in the 4th.

    That is a terrifying collection of perimeter defenders over there though. The steals, strips and deflections were just constant.

  40. I love how we played tonight. Don’t wanna see Ant&DA iso and just dead ball play anymore

  41. Some thoughts for no reason other than I love this team and like a thought exercise

    Camara – I love the SGA matchup. At times it looked like he was the best defender in the league. At times SGA dismantled him early and was just quicker than him. Overall I think it’s just amazing to watch him defend the best players in the league like that

    Sharpe – I still don’t really know what he is at his fullest potential. It’s odd. But I can say when he has the ball, I am excited and optimistic about what will happen in the possession. If I was betting against the blazers I wouldnt like if sharpe got it. That’s good. Decision making is sometimes calculated and sometimes sloppy and the pace and level of defending seems to dictate it. The coolest thing about him is he can jump and make decisions in the air. Insane athleticism

    Deni – I like him. I hope he stays through the full rebuild bc I think he’s just a multitool player who can initiate offense in spots. Had his moments tonight

    Scoot – injury sucks. Hope he’s good. Passing looks great. Athleticism still impressive and getting better. When he shoots I think he is going to miss so that’s not good. Layup package can be amazing and other times is forced. Tonight it was all on display. Guy is only 20, I’m fine w where he is.

    Clingan – he’s what we know he is. But that 3 in the corner and talking to the OKC bench was awesome. I love this man

    I have thoughts on other players but those were my main thoughts during the course of the game

    Edit: spelling

  42. I will die on the hill that a 11 to 12 man rotation is the way to go for this team. Murray was impactful in his limited minutes. Rupert could have really helped on defense and perimeter shooting. Our rebounding has been atrocious lately, but Walker, our best rebounder, gets repeated DNPs. The Warriors are the 1 seed with this philosophy, so why not try?

  43. The shots just didn’t go in today but we did better than I expected against OKC. I love this team♥️

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