Trail Blazers Silence Short-Handed Thunder, 106-89

In their first game of the 2014-15 NBA Season, the Portland Trail Blazers coasted through three quarters before handing the Oklahoma City Thunder a 31-12 final period, and the eventual 106-89 Blazers win. Portland was led by LaMarcus Aldridge (27 points), Wesley Matthews (22 points), and Nicolas Batum (16 points), while the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook racked up 38 with 6 assists.

Recap

The Trail Blazers are pretty deep. It’s been a while since we could say that, and when pitted against an injury-riddled Thunder team missing Kevin Durant, you may have thought this game would have been over a lot sooner than it was. The Thunder played with moxy as Damian Lillard struggled to find his shot. Any saving grace would be that he didn’t push the issue: Lillard’s 10 shot attempts put him among five other Trail Blazers with 10 or more of their own. Just three players took as many shots for Oklahoma City.

After Robin Lopez scored the Trail Blazers’ first two points of the season, Aldridge took a three with his first shot and canned it. Unfortunately, Lopez got 2 quick fouls, and the Blazers quickly found themselves down 16-7. Kaman put on a passing clinic and Aldridge had 15 points in the first quarter, but the Trail Blazers couldn’t stop Westbrook so the Thunder retained a 34-29 lead after one.

The second quarter was much of the same as the Thunder took advantage of the Trail Blazers’ inability to guard Westbrook, but twin towers Kaman and Lopez started collecting offensive rebounds like an entomologist collects beetles. Also, it’s easy to score when you recover your misses.

And misses were aplenty for poor Dame, who was without a point in the first half. Yet it turns out that having a lot of good scorers can be more useful than one great scorer. It was Westbrook who walked off the court with a dunk for the Thunder to end the half, shoring up a Thunder lead to make it 54-49, scoring 26 of his team’s points.

Dame finally got a basket in the third quarter off a drive, and as the ESPN announcers droned on, I heard something that rang very true: the Trail Blazers won’t be an elite team until they have at least decent defense. It’s really hard to see them contending if they cant hold their own.

With the Trail Blazers hustling, Batum breaking his slump, and the defense ratcheting down a bit, the Trail Blazers built a small 75-73 lead late in the third, and a Kaman hook made it 83-77 with 10 to go in the fourth and final quarter.

Both teams were competing. But the Trail Blazers finally stretched their legs and did what they should have tried much earlier: an overwhelming assault of awesome. Batum threw a HUGE lob to Aldridge, Lillard hit a three, Aldridge hit another jumper, and pretty soon it was Matthews for CONSECUTIVE threes to make it 101-85 and put the game out of hand. It was spooky how quickly the game went from a contest to a blowout. The subs came in, Allen Crabbe nailed a triple, and the game was baked: Blazers win 106-89.

Players

Aldridge had 15 after one quarter, finishing with 27 points on 53% shooting. As mentioned, his first shot was a three, and it was the only one he took all night. Aldridge is literally 100% from three this year. He should just not shoot another three, it’s not even like he needs to. Just keep that 100%.

Matthews was 5-9 from three, had 22 points, and no turnovers. He also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. A very solid night from Matthews, when someone or a few someones needed to pick up the slack from Lillard’s lack of scoring.

Batum overcame a cold start to go for 16-5-6 with a steal and a block. Those are nice numbers if you can get them. He looked much more comfortable taking the ball off the dribble in the second half, and it was good to see him run an offense, if only for a few minutes at a time.

Lopez had 11 points to go with 7 offensive rebounds (10 total) and 2 blocks. A great night for him. Along with Kaman (12 and 6 with 2 assists and a block), they rebounded like crazy and both have pretty good touch around the rim.

Lillard had a forgettable night. 10 points and 5 assists just about told the story, as poor shot selection early was not followed by hot shooting later. His defense is a work in progress. The good news is that the Trail Blazers didn’t need him tonight, but that won’t always be the case. I don’t think that’s a big secret.

Steve Blake had 5 assists and 5 board, but shot poorly. He managed the offense pretty well. I’d much rather have him and Kaman than Mo Williams, I’ll say that much.

Takeaways

The Trail Blazers won’t have the luxury of flipping the cruise control and showing up for 10 minutes to get wins. Tonight was an anomaly. They need to come back ready to play from the opening tip, and I bet they will be.

Kaman was a really nice get. His touch and passing is underrated, and he plays really well with other big men.

I might be in the minority when I say I want Aldridge to take more threes. It just looks so natural…

The Trail Blazers unveiled the Moda Center’s new, “picked-by-the-fans” court tonight, and it looks good. Lighter inside the three point line with a blood red key. It’s classy and easy on the eyes. The players apparently practiced on it rather than at their practice facility earlier because the court is discernibly brighter now… might this have something to do with their poor play early on? I’d rather chalk it up to adjusting to the new look than anything more serious after a big win, so yeah, that’s why they struggled early… But they’re good now.

The Trail Blazers stuck to an 8-man rotation, but Blake didn’t score and McCollum didn’t contribute much. They essentially had 6 people carrying the burden. Is that going to fly for 81 more games? Probably not, but again, tonight was a funky game due to injuries.

The Trail Blazers go on the road against the Sacramento Kings on Halloween, Friday, Octoboer 31st, at 7:00 p.m. PDT.