Trail Blazers: Player grades from uplifting win over the Thunder

To the relief of many, the Portland Trail Blazers finally appear to be picking up steam after their 136-119 victory over Oklahoma City.

Watch out, the Portland Trail Blazers are fun to watch again! A little bit of respite from their harsh six-game road trip has proven to do them much good, as Portland steam rolled the Bulls and Thunder in back-to-back games.

With five of their next six games also coming at home, now is the perfect time to get their new acquisitions acquainted with their schemes and get back to playing winning basketball.

Here are the Trail Blazers’ individual player grades coming off their second consecutive victory.

Even at 29-years-old, Damian Lillard never stops finding ways to improve his game. He has slowly become an expert at the art of drawing the foul, and getting to the line for easy points. Last night he went 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. Lillard has averaged a career high in free throw attempts per game this season, and is also knocking them down at a career high rate (93 percent — fifth highest in the NBA). Drawing so many free throws will help Dame remain productive even when his shot isn’t falling.

That wasn’t the case last night. Dame drilled 5-of-9 shots from beyond the arc, most coming well past the 3-point line. He repeatedly set his teammates up, playing a key role in the Blazers’ much improved ball distribution of late.

Last night we were all offered an early Christmas present by having the chance to watch vintage Carmelo Anthony at work. Melo shot 9-for-10 from within the 3-point line, only taking one shot from deep. Nothing could stop him from backing down his defender for a sweet turnaround J. When the defense anticipated the jumper, Anthony drove to the hoop and even delivered a highlight slam dunk to assert his dominance.

But maybe this wasn’t vintage Melo after all, but instead a new and improved version. Carmelo showed a willingness to pass like we haven’t seen before, and the Trail Blazers’ ball movement looked much improved when he was on the court. If his teammates had hit a few open shots, Melo would have had more assists to show for it. Three turnovers and foul trouble (yet again) are the only things stopping this from being an ‘A+’ night for Anthony, but I’m sure receiving a celebratory chant from the crowd was a greater prize.

Now this is the Kent Bazemore we want to see. When Bazemore is allowed to play a utility role, he is a much more valuable asset to Portland. Injuries have tempted Kent to take more shots and force his offense lately, and he hasn’t had much success on that end. Last night was no different, as he shot 0-for-5 from the field and finished with only 3 points. But he did excel everywhere else. Crashing the boards, setting up his teammates, ball hawking on defense, you name it. The Trail Blazers have more than enough scoring. If Kent can settle on solely spotting-up and focusing his efforts everywhere else, he would be a critically important piece on a contender.

Last night was certainly not the best of Anfernee Simons‘ relatively short career. He scored 14 points (while needing 14 shots to do it) and only dished out one assist. So far, he’s averaging 1.4 assists per game this season. He clearly isn’t becoming the playmaker off the bench Portland needs — at least not yet. That being said, Anfernee was also the only Blazer off the bench to score more than two baskets. Simons proved he can be a valuable spark plug even when his supporting cast on the bench disappears, and for that reason we’ll give him some leniency.

My oh my, what a game from Hassan Whiteside. This may be the first time I’ve seen Hassan look completely 100 percent engaged in Portland, and it showed. In just 22 minutes, Whiteside put up an incredible 21 points and 16 rebounds. Extrapolate that stat line over Whiteside’s season average minutes per game (27.8 entering last night), and he would have been on pace to achieve an Andre Drummond-esque stat line of 27 points and 20 rebounds.

Thankfully, Hassan didn’t have to play all that long last night, as he pushed the team to their insane 42 point first quarter, allowing the Trail Blazers to coast from there on out. Let’s hope Rip City can keep this positive momentum up as they enter a critical stretch of games at home.