After a wild two-and-a-half quarters, the Oklahoma City Thunder surged ahead in the third quarter, eventually blowing out the Portland Trail Blazers, 137-114. As OKC goes to 5-0 with the win, let’s dig into the details.
Blazer of the Night: Toumani Camara. His early defense and three-point shooting helped get Portland back in the game. He finished with 13 points on 3-5 three-point shooting, with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and plenty of defensive movement.
Pivotal numbers: Nine Thunder Players hit three-pointers, none named “Chet”. Both teams shot buckets of threes, making over 40% of them, but it was OKC who spread the shot around to great effect.
Defining Moment: Jalen Williams’ third quarter technical foul. At the moment of that T, OKC had been called for 17 fouls (including four on Chet Holmgren, forcing him to the bench). An aggressive Portland team had been called for a scant 6. After “making their case” to the officials, the Thunder were called for 2 fouls in the rest of the quarter while amping up their hounding defense, out-scoring Portland by 17.
Rough Landing: Anfernee Simons. Simons landed on his non-shooting arm late in the game, and did not quickly get up. He was taken to the bench for medical treatment but did not go to the locker room. The Blazers will probably provide an update later.
Box Score
What Next: Back in action tomorrow night. The Blazers head to Phoenix to play the Suns Saturday evening. But stay tuned for more analysis of tonight’s game from Dave Deckard, and a media report from Conor Bergin.