The Oklahoma City Thunder know this as well as, if not better than, anyone else: There’s no real stopping Dame Time.
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard hit four 3-pointers in the final 4:15 of the game Tuesday, including a 28-foot step-back over perfect defense by wing Lu Dort, to effectively end the Thunder’s late run and hand OKC the 115-104 loss.
“The shots he made, obviously, are bombs,” said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault.
His burst stymied a 24-point OKC comeback and a 10-point Thunder run that had given them a lead with time ticking down.
You see, Oklahoma City does not go down easily. The Thunder may have lost four of the previous six games entering Tuesday night, but all of them were either single-possession finishes, went to overtime or both.
The Blazers took a 24-point lead in the third quarter, but we’ve reached the point of the season in which we expect the Thunder to make some sort of comeback.
After falling behind 82-58, OKC scored the next 11 points. The team went into the fourth quarter down by 14, but scored the first eight points of the final frame.
Then, the Thunder went on a 10-0 run to take a 102-97 lead with 4:48 to play.
At that point, Lillard had had enough. Here is every single basket for the remainder of the game:
- Lillard 3
- Gary Trent Jr. 3 (Lillard assist)
- Lillard 3
- Lillard 3
- Two Lu Dort free throws
- Robert Covington 3 (Lillard assist)
- Lillard 3, this time from 30 feet out
The Blazers star was responsible for 18 points in 4:11 of play. It was a masterful close for an MVP candidate.
“With him, it’s really about trying to limit the more easy stuff. You don’t want to foul him and put him on the line,” Daigneault said. “The biggest breakdowns we had on him were where he beat our coverage and was able to commit a third guy to the ball and then spray it, those are the ones that are more controllable.”
What isn’t controllable are those deep step-backs. Adjustments can’t account for these. Daigneault’s coaching has been exemplary this season and team defense has been effective. It was even good against Lillard for most of the game — prior to his outburst at the end, Lillard was 1-for-10 from 3 and 8-for-21 overall.
But then the clock struck Dame Time.
That nullified a great performance by Dort, who was the Thunder’s best player on both ends of the court. He defended Lillard for much of the game and continued to draw offensive fouls on screeners. On offense, he posted 23 points, six rebounds and three assists.
He hit three 3-pointers for the second game in a row after going seven straight games with no more than one.
Speaking of streaks, Hamidou Diallo scored 17 points. His double-digit points streak ended at 12 games on Sunday, but with this performance against Portland, he’s on track to begin anew. He shot 7-for-14 from the field in 31 minutes of play.
Isaiah Roby had a double-double off the bench. Six of his 10 rebounds came in the fourth quarter, and he had 11 points.
“Roby was just everywhere. Offensively, getting offensive rebounds, hanging around the basket, just playing with a lot of energy. It was great to see him come out and be assertive,” said center Al Horford. “Especially in the fourth, I felt like he was really good for us.”
Horford was tasked with boxing out Enes Kanter, which is something the Thunder have not had any success at in their two matchups this season. After Kanter recorded 23 rebounds on Jan. 25, he had seven offensive and 14 defensive boards on Tuesday.
The Thunder played Horford and Roby together to try to get extra size down low for the boards.
“Al did a really good job of keeping him off the glass and then it was kind of my job to go in there and clean it up,” Roby said.
In general, the Thunder played a good game — or at least a good second half. The free throw differential was in their favor, as they made 20 free throws in total while the Blazers made 11 and did not get to the stripe a single time in the fourth quarter.
Kanter dominated the boards, but OKC was only outrebounded 54-46 — not ideal, but when one individual player grabs 21, that’s not bad. Six Thunder players scored double-digits. We already mentioned Lillard’s relatively rough first 43 minutes.
But the Thunder couldn’t hold on. They’ve become adept at making comebacks or big runs, but they aren’t able to hold their own leads yet.
“Every night, I feel like we’re just going to come out there and lay it out on the ground,” Diallo said.
“It’s definitely important to try to grab a couple of these wins because this is what it’s about, but I feel like we’re just learning, we’re getting better as the season keeps goes on at finishing and closing games. That’s a big emphasis for us.”
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!
