Blazers drenched in stormy second half vs. Thunder

The Portland Trail Blazers played a great second quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Unfortunately, scoring 44 points in one frame wasn't enough to stop the West's best. Oklahoma City came out of the locker room to throttle the Blazers, forcing turnovers and running with abandon. The result was a 137-114 victory for the Thunder.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 30 points on 12-for-18 shooting. Jerami Grant led the Blazers with 17.

Here are some of the factors that determined the outcome of the game.

Preliminary objection

Before we even begin, there should be a rule that the visiting team cannot choose uniforms that conflict with the home team's floor, which would have the same effect as rubbing a cheese grater on your optic nerve for 48 minutes. I just say: thunder.

Super easy scoring

The Thunder's starting lineup, 1-5, knew exactly where and how they wanted to score tonight. Essentially, they were willing to take advantage of everything the Blazers defense gave them. Go under the screens of the three? They had done it. Leave SGA in individual insurance? Within two seconds he was on the trail. Wrap up the middle? The ball went to the wings with an open bounce. That kind of firepower is scary. Portland just doesn't have it.

Deni Avdija

In the latest episode of the Trail Daddy podcast, I talked a little about Deni Avidja and his offensive woes. Basically he continues to look for the pass, but the opponents play him like that. They make him a one-on-one scorer. It's just not him. Deni had 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field tonight, thanks in part to him freeing himself up to score in other ways.

When the Blazers allowed Avdija to run the ball down the floor and direct the offense from the middle, he returned to better form. He really shined when he received the ball on the counterattack or on the weak side. When he has space in front of him, he can convert well.

Getting Avdija rolling while maintaining the guards' productivity will be one of the puzzles Portland will have to solve this year.

Still, one wonders whether Deni might not be a candidate for the bench when Shaedon Sharpe returns from injury. Charitably, he is equally capable of impacting the game as a starter or reserve player. The Blazers are less charitable, just need more offense right now than Deni can provide, even on good nights like this.

Screens

The screens proved to be a huge advantage for OKC tonight. Simply put, you use them strongly and effectively and use them with utmost precision. It's pretty amazing to see how the most obvious and ubiquitous play in NBA basketball produces consistent results simply because the Thunder dribblers wait for the screen to set and then brush right past the screen, giving Portland defenders no Daylight remains. The old school Utah Jazz used to play like this. Guess what? It still works, even against an improved Blazers defense.

Portland eventually tried a workaround and changed the lineup. This kept her from staying behind the screens so much. But once the Thunder saw the change, they were willing to exploit mismatches by moving smaller players inside and pulling centers into the three-point arc.

It should be noted that the Thunder are currently the youngest team in the NBA. Portland's excuses for being young evaporate in the face of OKC's flawless execution. It's not just about age. It's about talent, trust, attention to detail and coaching.

Threesome and the third

One of the other things we mentioned on the Trail Daddy podcast was that both of Portland's wins this season featured the same trend: 40% or better shooting from beyond the arc. Tonight they stayed level with the Thunder for half an hour using exactly that mechanism. However, as the threesomes disappeared, so did their chances of winning. The Blazers attempted only two three-pointers in the third period. They also committed numerous turnovers and only managed 12 total shots. This led to a 21-point Thunder lead in the frame with the game tied at halftime.

When Portland missed six of its first seven three-pointers early in the fourth period, that was all she wrote.

Based on the excitement in the first half, the Blazers shot 15-35, 42.9% tonight. Oklahoma City shot just 38.8%, but out of 49 total attempts from beyond the arc, that was good for 19 shots, 4 more than the Blazers managed.

Free throws

No matter how bad things got, the Blazers had a big advantage tonight. They enjoyed foul shots, partly because of their dedication to putting the ball in the goal, and partly because it was just one of those nights. The Blazers made 21 of 31 foul shots. The Thunder attempted just 19 and scored 16.

It should be noted that the referees changed their tune in the third period after OKC started complaining loudly. Losing that advantage didn't cause Portland's collapse, but it solidified it.

Brute force the solution

That last paragraph pretty much shows how the Thunder handled the Portland threat. Sometimes you develop a clever algorithm to find a solution to a thorny problem. In other cases, you simply instruct the computer to perform trial after trial until it finds the correct answers. The latter approach proved beneficial for OKC tonight.

Portland shot 47% from the field and the aforementioned 43% from the three-point arc, both more than enough to eke out a win on a normal night. They were instead taken out of the game because the Thunder attempted 95 to 83 shots for the Blazers, while Portland had 19 turnovers, including 6 by Avdija. 12 additional attempts from the floor and 14 from beyond the arc proved to be too much for Portland to make up for.

Rayan Rupert

We haven't mentioned many of the substitutes for Portland this year, but we'll give credit to Rayan Rupert. He shot quickly and decisively en route to 14 points on 4-7 shooting from distance. Rupert looked like a rotation player in every way tonight.

Feed Ayton

Deandre Ayton was one of Portland's only bright spots in the third period as he took shots at the rim on knockdowns and lobs. This also turned out to be a bit of a curse. Oklahoma City sensed the tactic and ended up cutting off passes before they arrived, leaving Portland to throw the ball deep in vain, only to find fumbles and interceptions. It's still encouraging to see Ayton go in while the guards find him. He shot 7-11 from the field and scored 14 points. He only had 5 boards, but Thunder star Chet Holmgren played just 18 minutes with 6 points and 1 rebound. (To be fair, Holmgren had an incredible 5 blocks in that short amount of time. Wow.)

Next

Box score

The Blazers travel to Phoenix to take on the Suns in Pacific tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Buckle up.