Thunder Struggle In Portland, Now Face Hot Jazz
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
Even without Victor Oladipo, who missed his first game of the season last night with that sprained right wrist, you had to think the Thunder could at least stick close to the Trail Blazers.
After all Portland was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a grueling 121-120 loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles and the home team just had finished up a long 5-game road trip that saw them lose four straight games.
So much for that line of thinking.
Portland led by as many as 26 and cruised to a 114-95 win. Head coach Billy Donovan waved the white flag early when he decided to keep superstar Russell Westbrook on the bench instead of on the floor in the 4th quarter.
Westbrook finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.
A Westbrook 3-ball actually put the Thunder up 25-16 early but the Blazers finished the quarter on a 16-6 run to take a 32-31 lead into the 2nd quarter and they never looked back.
OKC ended up shooting just 37.9 percent while turning the ball over a whopping 20 times.
''I didn't think that we shot the ball particularly well today,'' Donovan said. ''I thought that we had fairly decent looks, but we didn't shoot the ball well, and I thought some of that bled into our defense a little bit.''
That Thunder defense, which has generally been pretty solid this season, allowed Portland to shoot 53.8 percent and score 54 points in the paint.
Oklahoma City couldn’t get much going down low, scoring just 38 points on 19-for-47 shooting (40.4 percent).
It added up to a disappointing loss to a below .500 team that had been struggling.
“We just need to wash this game away and start (Wednesday) fresh,” said Thunder rookie forward Domas Sabonis.
That fresh start Sabonis is looking for won’t be easy. The Thunder are in Salt Lake City now for a game tonight against the red-hot Utah Jazz, a team that’s won eight out of the last 10 and with last night’s Thunder loss is now tied with OKC for 6th place in the Western Conference.
The Jazz struggled earlier this season, mostly because of injuries to key players but those guys are getting back to action now.
Utah forward Derrick Favors , whose missed 13 games with a bone bruise, is expected to play limited minutes tonight.
He’s played in 11 games and is averaging 10.5 points and 6.5 rebounds. His biggest impact will probably be on defense. The Jazz were already one of the top defensive teams in the league and having Favors back will only make them better.
The Thunder won all four games against the Jazz last season, tonight will be the first meeting between the teams this season.
Tipoff is set for 8:10 Oklahoma time and you can see the game on Fox Sports Oklahoma. The Thunder will fly home after the game and will host Phoenix in a rare 4pm Saturday game at Chesapeake Energy Arena.