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BOX SCORE | SHOT CARDS
The Oklahoma City Thunder lost Tuesday night to the Portland Trail Blazers in a 114-94 loss to the Moda Center. Led to double digits in the final minutes of the second quarter, the Thunder dismounted and the offensive stalled, while the OKC finished 5 to 28 (18%). Fueled by a 37-point third quarter that saw the Blazers shoot 62.5 percent of the ground, Terry Stotts and Billy Donovan dumped their bench in the final minutes of the one-way match. CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard led all scorers with 33 and 29 points, Paul George being the only positive point of the Thunder with 27 points on 11 shots on 20 shots on the ground, despite his 2 of the 7 fights deep inside. Russell Westbrook struggled from the ground, getting 5 out of 20 points and finishing with 14 points.
The Thunder quickly racked up a seven-point lead midway through Westbrook's "cradled baby" after a reverse pass on Lillard, limiting the mark to 11-2 in Oklahoma City. Portland quickly regained the lead with a 9-0 record after CJ McCollum's magnificent center over Paul George carried the Blazers to two. Dennis Schroder arrived and closed the quarter with big games – first with a pull-up after Raymond Felton's flight in transition on Evan Turner, followed by a flight on Lillard that led to a transition dunk of Nerlens Noel. A decline of Schroder in the last seconds puts the Thunder 31-26 at the end of a shot.
Lillard's despair from far above Terrance Ferguson, the firing point approaching zero, brought the Blazers closer by less than six minutes to halfway through the second third, but George responded on the next trip with a decline of three on Al-Farouq Aminu. George began to let the crowd in the center of Moda know that the shoulder was feeling just right. The Thunder's lead increased to 10 after Westbrook's explosive arrival, but from that point on, the former MVP left much to be desired to close the half.
Immediately after a balloon elbow, Westbrook returned to the defensive, losing Lillard before Jerami Grant injured Lillard for the 4: 4 game, bringing the Blazers deficit to four. Two minutes later, the Portland crowd was moved after a brief exchange between the two guards. Westbrook lost the ball and called a timeout just before trying to sell very minimal contacts with Lillard. Shortly after, Westbrook attempted a misguided triple, the second of this variety in the quarter.
While the Blazers were shooting from behind to three in the final seconds of the half, Schroder's inability to prevent Lillard's dribbling penetration created a wide-open look for McCollum, only touching the net as the quarterback sounded at 54. George, Lillard and McCollum led all scorers to the break with 16 points. Westbrook closed the first period with seven points on three of the thirteen shots on goal.
The McCollum jumper allowed Portland to score two points in the opening minutes of the third and the Blazers would not turn around. George had turnovers on back-to-back possessions, which led to a pair of Blazers transition doubled. Westbrook forced another triple, which led to a deep and heartbreaking treble to Lillard, igniting Portland's boisterous crowd. Ferguson's shot from a cut in the baseline reduced the Thunder's deficit to six in the final minutes of the third, but the Thunder let Seth Curry come off. After a defense, the three Curry players took the Blazers to nine. Lillard allowed three more open throws for Curry, this time in transition, which pushed the Blazers to 12 points. Westbrook was called to an offensive foul, his fourth at 10.5 seconds, leaving Lillard all the time to score the first goal. -back three to the ring. The Blazers led 91-75 after three. The Thunder returned the ball seven times during the quarter and was beaten 37-21.
The Blazers continued to beat throughout the fourth inning, with Billy Donovan starting the game at 3:31 with 21 points ahead of the Thunder. The series is now back to Oklahoma City in must win fashion. Game 3: send shot at 8:30 pm, Paris time, televised on ESPN and Fox Sports Oklahoma.
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Same thing, different day: Many in thunder circles could not imagine such an offensive and catastrophic outing from the first to the second match. No way that they can shoot so badly from three, right? As a reminder, this team was one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA after the All-Star break. Their offensive rating (109.1) was the fifth worst in the NBA, and their 33.4% success on three shots ranked fourth in the Association. Just wait for this team to suddenly find an offense just because it was clearly not justified. The Thunder answered 15.2% of their shots in the first game against 17.9% in the second game. George (2/7), Russ (1/6), Grant (0/5), Ferguson (1/5) – everything was bad.
Defend the 3: Oklahoma City held Portland at 28.6% to three in its four regular season games, but as in the opening game, the floodgates were open for the Trail Blazers. Lillard and McCollum had no problem getting the Thunder defense through their dribble, creating quality looks for each other and for Seth Curry. The Blazers fired 40.6% of the shots on goal, which was not enough for the Thunder.
In turn, my turn: No, I'm not talking about the half-court offensive the Thunder has succumbed to over the past decade. I am referring to the recurrent theme in which one of the Thunder All-Stars is continually forced to take over for the other. In the first game, it was Westbrook's triple double that was trying to defeat the Thunder despite George's difficulties. This evening, it was 27 of George's 11/20 points, catching Westbrook's 14 extremely inefficient points on 5/20 of the floor, including 1/6 of three. This franchise has always been built around their two stars. For some reason, these two players rarely play at a high level the same evening.
Bowel control time: The Thunder has not won any playoff games on the road since 2016. It has beaten 0 to 11 since winning the One State vs. Golden State in the Western Conference final. This is the match that so many Thunder fans have longed for: to face an exhausted Blazers team without their starting point at Jusuf Nurkic and McCollum's return after a potentially devastating knee sprain. As thunder sweeps over the barrel of another early exit of the first round, how will this team react in the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Friday night?
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