Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault broke away from his usual rotation of sitting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the first six minutes of the period.
Considering the Portland Trail Blazers started the quarter on a quick 7-0 run to extend their lead to 112-103, who could blame Daigneault? Especially with how awesome Gilgeous-Alexander was in the first three quarters.
Deviating from his usual rotation paid off big time.
The decision ultimately won the game for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they went on a 35-14 run in Gilgeous-Alexander’s nine fourth-quarter minutes.
The Thunder pulled away with a 138-129 win against the Trail Blazers for their seventh consecutive win against them.
“Defensively, I thought we weren’t where we needed to be a lot of the game. You can correct it the next day in film or you can correct it in practice but it’s best when you can correct it in the game and I thought that’s what we did tonight,” Thunder head coach Daigneault said. “… That’s what I was most impressed with tonight was just our ability to course-correct in real time.”
Gilgeous-Alexander dissected the Trail Blazers’ non-existent defense as he scored 42 points on a ridiculous 13-of-16 shooting. In the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander torched the Trail Blazers with 10 points and out-dueled fellow All-Star guard Damian Lillard — who finished with 38 points.
Points were a surplus in this entertaining back-and-fourth, high-scoring contest. Both teams reached the century mark by the end of the third quarter as the Trail Blazers led 105-103. The lead changed hands nine times with nine ties also occurring in this high-octane scoring affair.
The Thunder shot 47-of-83 (56.6%) from the field and went 12-of-24 (50%) from 3 on 29 team assists. The Thunder also enjoyed a frequent night at the free-throw stripe as they went 32-of-35 (91.4%).
The Thunder dominated inside the paint, outscoring the Trail Blazers 70-42.
The Thunder had six players score at least 10 points in this win with Gilgeous-Alexander’s superb-efficient 44 points leading the way. Only five other players had nights like Gilgeous-Alexander had when it comes to scoring at least 44 points on 16 or fewer shots — Adrian Dantley twice, Gilbert Arenas, DeMarcus Cousins, Amar’e Stoudemire and Isaiah Thomas.
The Trail Blazers shot 42-of-76 (55.3%) from the field and went 16-of-40 (40%) from 3 on 29 team assists. Like the Thunder, the Trail Blazers also had a favorable whistle as they went 29-of-31 (93.5%) from the free-throw line.
Lillard finished with 38 points on 10-of-18 shooting, 6-of-13 from 3 and went 12-of-13 from the free-throw line. Jerami Grant also contributed with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Shaedon Sharpe had 13 points off the bench and Cam Reddish finished with 11 points in his Trail Blazers debut.
The Thunder are now 3-0 against the Trail Blazers this season and have just outscored them by 14 total points in those three victories, which means that the young squad is learning how to close out tight wins.
“Portland was a desperate team tonight. We’re in very similar positions, so this was a big win for us,” Josh Giddey said.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.