By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Oklahoma City Thunder got the better of the Portland Trailblazers, 118-108, during their Western Conference showdown in the ongoing NBA regular season on January 27, 2025.
Oklahoma’s victory helped them return to their winning ways after dropping their last game over the banged-up Dallas Mavericks squad who outplayed them without Luka Doncic who is still nursing a left calf strain injury.
It wasn’t their usual walk-in-the-park performance as the Trailblazers enjoyed a brief 10-point advantage in the first quarter.
Powered by the waxing-hot shooting of Deni Avdija and Scoot Henderson, Portland quickly jumped in the driver’s seat, forcing Oklahoma head coach Mark Daigneault to call back-to-back timeouts to voice out his frustrations.
In a jiffy, the rejuvenated Thunder took coach Daigneault’s words to heart that resulted in a 14-2 closing run for a 27-all deadlock heading into the second period.
From that sequence, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the Oklahoma mob played like themselves and locked down Portland’s three-point shooting with the help of their versatile switching.
Despite Portland running horns and deploying pin-down screens to generate their three-point shots, the Thunder’s coverage on the perimeter, especially in the wings, neutralized the Trailblazers’ long-range efficiency.
That then set the tone for their offense to come naturally as Alexander torched Portland with several isolation plays in the second half.
Too shifty and too crafty, Alexander almost outscored Portland’s starting backcourt in the third and was just in his bag, draining step-back perimeter jumpers while toying with their frontcourt when he received the screen switch.
The Trailblazers had one last chance to get back into the ball game after Avdija drained some timely off-the-curl treys backstopped by Toumani Camara’s paint scoring.
However, Alexander Jalen Williams joined hands and filled the role as Oklahoma’s primary closers, converting buckets when their team needed them the most, ballooning their lead back to double digits.
Alexander led the Thunder with an impressive 35-point performance alongside five rebounds, three steals, and an assist.
Meanwhile, Williams delivered an all-around outing of 24 markers, eight dimes, five boards, two blocks, and a swipe.
Oklahoma will aim for a second consecutive victory on January 30, 2025, as they face off against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
