It was more difficult than most imagined, but the Oklahoma City Thunder eventually took care of business against the Portland Trail Blazers, 118-112.
With the tight standings, the Thunder avoided disaster in a pseudo-must-win game against a depleted Trail Blazers. The Thunder have now won eight consecutive games against the Trail Blazers.
The win keeps the Thunder in the 10th seed, and are a full game ahead (plus owning the tiebreaker) of the 11th-placed Dallas Mavericks — who lost two consecutive games against the Charlotte Hornets.
Despite the victory, it’s hard to avoid the foul taste that came with this win.
The Trail Blazers played their reserves as they were without Damian Lillard (calf tightness), Jerami Grant (quad contusion), Anfernee Simons (foot soreness) and Jusuf Nurkic (knee soreness).
That’s Portland’s top-four scorers — including two 20-point scorers in Simons and Grant and Lillard’s career-high 32.2 points per game. On paper, this should’ve been an easy win for the Thunder.
Even though fans might not be pleased with how close this win was, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault understands that wins don’t always come easy — especially against players fighting for their careers, something he’s grown accustomed to during his time as the G League’s OKC Blue head coach.
“When guys that don’t have regular opportunities — especially when they’ve learned that they’re not getting regular opportunities and then they get an opportunity — the level of motivation is high,” Daigneault said. “That’s the circumstance (the Trail Blazers are) in right now. They got a lot of guys out and these guys are getting opportunities and when that happens, guys are going to step up and they’re going to play really hard.”
Building off of Daigneault’s sentiment, the Trail Blazers forced the Thunder to play a four-quarter game.
A slow start plagued OKC with a 37-25 deficit following the first quarter. The Trail Blazers started the game hot from 3, shooting 6-of-9 in the first quarter. A 43-point second quarter helped the Thunder wash away the slow start.
Alas, the sense of urgency disappeared following halftime.
The Thunder once again played lethargic to start the third quarter as the Trail Blazers used an 11-0 run to retake the lead.
The Thunder eventually escaped with a win as they used a 22-18 fourth-quarter advantage to close out the victory. An 11-1 fourth-quarter Thunder run helped create distance in the scoreboard.
The distance was quickly erased as the Trail Blazers stormed back.
After the Trail Blazers cut OKC’s lead to two points with 2:34 left, the Thunder finished the game on a 7-3 run to cap off the season sweep.
Without their four best players, the Trail Blazers were led by the young duo of Shaedon Sharpe and Nassir Little — who both scored season highs.
Sharpe finished with 29 points on 9-of-13 shooting and went 8-of-11 from the free-throw line. Off the bench, Little finished with 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting.
For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points on 17 shots and Jalen Williams scored 23 points on 14 shots. Isaiah Joe added 20 points off the bench.
Facing an opponent with nonexistent rim protection, the Thunder outscored the Trail Blazers inside of the paint, 56-42. The Thunder also enjoyed a 29-11 points off turnovers advantage as they forced 18 turnovers.
“It wasn’t a pretty game — by any stretch — it wasn’t our best game, but given the circumstances, it required a level of resilience and toughness out of our team and I thought we had that to win the game,” Daigneault said.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.