Game Thread GAME# 16: THUNDER @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 25, 2021 - MONDAY, 7:00, NBCSNW

Darkwebs · Jan 24, 2021

2020-21 REGULAR SEASON RECORD
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
6 - 9
(5-4 Road)
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
9 - 6
(5-4 Home)

______________________________
---------PROBABLE STARTERS---------

PG

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER VS DAMIAN LILLARD

SG

GEORGE HILL VS GARY TRENT Jr.

SF

LUGUENTZ DORT VS DERRICK JONES Jr.

PF

DARIUS BAZLEY VS CARMELO ANTHONY

C

ISAIAH ROBY VS ENES KANTER

-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- JERSEYS -------

---

--------------------------------------------------------------

WHEN: 7:00 PM (PST), MONDAY, 1/25/2021

WHERE: Moda Center, Portland, OR

TV BROADCAST:

RADIO BROADCAST:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

--------------BENCH--------------

-- OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER --

MALEDON , DIALLO , WILLIAMS

MILLER , JACKSON

MUSCALA , POKUSEVSKI , BROWN

---- PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS ----

SIMONS , BLEVINS

ELLEBY , HOOD

LITTLE , GILES

INJURIES
THUNDER
Al Horford (personal): QUESTIONABLE
Josh Hall (COVID-protocol): OUT
Ty Jerome (ankle): OUT
Trevor Ariza (personal): OUT
TRAIL BLAZERS
Robert Covington (concussion): OUT
C.J. McCollum (left foot fracture): OUT
Jusuf Nurkic (right wrist fracture): OUT
Zach Collins (left ankle stress fracture): OUT

HEAD COACHES

- VS –

MARK DAIGNEAULT ------------------ TERRY STOTTS

OFFICIAL THUNDER'S GAME NOTES

OFFICIAL BLAZERS' GAME NOTES

• Portland's Jan. 25 game against the Thunder is the first of three matchups between the Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City during the 2020-21 season. The teams will meet in Oklahoma City on Feb. 16 and then a third time in the Second Half of the season.

• LAST SEASON: The Trail Blazers and the Thunder split the season series in 2019-20, 2-2.

• Damian Lillard averaged 27.5 points (39.5% FG, 38.1% 3-PT, 88.2% FT), 3.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.25 steals in four games against the Thunder last season.

• Gary Trent Jr. scored 30 points (12-18 FG, 5-9 3-PT, 1-2 FT) to go with five rebounds and three steals at Oklahoma City on Jan. 18, 2020.

• In four games against the Trail Blazers last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 16.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

• HEAD-TO-HEAD HISTORY:
ALL TIME: Thunder lead, 122-118
PORTLAND HOME: Trail Blazers lead, 77-43
OKLAHOMA CITY HOME: Thunder lead, 79-41

Darkwebs · Jan 24, 2021

Back to back for both teams here. Luckily, Blazers aren't the team flying from LA, not to mention the fact that they had 5 days off before these last two games.

B-Roy · Jan 24, 2021

Mark Diagonal gonna use some crazy strategies for this game?

Tince · Jan 24, 2021

B-Roy said:
Mark Diagonal gonna use some crazy strategies for this game?

I hope he goes with the "dare Dame to shoot" strategy... that would be the craziest of crazy!

Daring our wings to shoot is boring!

Scalma · Jan 24, 2021

We’ll be out coached as usual, let’s see if our individual talent is enough to pull it off.

illmatic99 · Jan 24, 2021

Just going thru some rosters at the moment. Which is better?

dame -- steph
hood -- wiggins
jones -- oubre
roco -- green
kanter -- wiseman

simons -- lee
trent -- bazemore
melo -- paschall
giles -- looney

BlazerBeav · Jan 24, 2021

We need to bank every win we can, this should be one.

(Also something went screwy with the team records above).

Tince · Jan 24, 2021

illmatic99 said:
Just going thru some rosters at the moment. Which is better?

dame -- steph
hood -- wiggins
jones -- oubre
roco -- green
kanter -- wiseman

poole -- simons
lee -- trent
paschall -- melo
looney -- giles

Starting unit on the right (starters aren't even that close)... bench unit on the right. Why is the great Bazemore not in the top 9?

illmatic99 · Jan 24, 2021

Tince said:
Starting unit on the right (starters aren't even that close)... bench unit on the right. Why is the great Bazemore not in the top 9?

you're right, I forgot Baze. he's prolly in there instead of Poole. I'll edit that.

Honestly, i think steph has a much better supporting cast at the moment than dame, and it ain't close.

Tince · Jan 24, 2021

illmatic99 said:
you're right, I forgot Baze. he's prolly in there instead of Poole. I'll edit that.

Honestly, i think steph has a much better supporting cast at the moment than dame, and it ain't close.

For sure the starters aren't close.

I woud take:

Wiggins over Hood
Oubre over Jones Jr
Green over RoCo
Wiseman over Kanter
I'm glad we have Dame, but to say Steph is better would not be crazy at all.

So better at all 5 positions?

Darkwebs · Jan 24, 2021

A shoe that celebrates one of the best moment in Blazers' history! So awesome!

For those that forgot what happened:

THE HCP · Jan 24, 2021

Scalma said:
We’ll be out coached as usual, let’s see if our individual talent is enough to pull it off.

Just so I know how this works....... were we "out coached" tonight in our win against the Knicks?

Tince · Jan 24, 2021

THE HCP said:
Just so I know how this works....... were we "out coached" tonight in our win against the Knicks?

I can answer this for him:

Yes... we will be out coached in every game regardless of the outcome or what happens on the floor. If we win a playoff series or two, it would be in spite of coaching, not because of it.

THE HCP · Jan 24, 2021

I mean honestly. I don't understand it. Did he coach well tonight? I mean we beat one of the best defenses in the league missing 2-3 starters. So was it a well coached game? Did he take his timeouts when he was supposed to? Mad confusing.

Tince · Jan 25, 2021

THE HCP said:
I mean honestly. I don't understand it. Did he coach well tonight? I mean we beat one of the best defenses in the league missing 2-3 starters. So was it a well coached game? Did he take his timeouts when he was supposed to? Mad confusing.

Let me take a crack at this one too:

"Stotts makes no adjustments" (ignore the zone defense and sets we ran out of timeouts)
"Stotts never change his rotations" (ignore the new lineups we played again tonight - they're diffent most nights)
"Dame saved Stotts horrible offense" (ignore the other 77 points scored by other people)

jlprk · Jan 25, 2021

I don't know any of their names except one. Moses Brown's PER this season is 34.5 in 22 minutes.

KSF-ERIC · Jan 25, 2021

I watched the Thunder yesterday and it was Kenrich Williams who impressed me the most. He really hustles out there. Gotta make sure we box him out.

stampedehero · Jan 25, 2021

Darkwebs said:
Back to back for both teams here. Luckily, Blazers aren't the team flying from LA, not to mention the fact that they had 5 days off before these last two games.

I choose the first option as that is the way it is. Of course blow outs are times I start my laundry.

kjironman1 · Jan 25, 2021

I don't usually "prefer" losses. So my answer is leading by 15 at the end of the game. I do my laundry even during wins. It's why my wife leaves me alone during games.

Go get this one Blazers! ( In spite of all the posters that say the team sucks)

BonesJones · Jan 25, 2021

Tince said:
For sure the starters aren't close.

I woud take:

Wiggins over Hood
Oubre over Jones Jr
Green over RoCo
Wiseman over Kanter
I'm glad we have Dame, but to say Steph is better would not be crazy at all.

So better at all 5 positions?

What does Wiggins do well? Score inefficiently? He's incredibly overrated.
Oubre is shooting 35% from the field and 20% from 3, and isnt the defender Jones is.
Kanter and Wiseman are equal. Wiseman has been inefficient for a C, but is the better defender (although Kanter has picked it up on that end lately).
Draymond is shooting 33% from the field and 23% from 3, while averaging less than 5ppg.

Nobody on their bench impresses me whatsoever.

illmatic99 · Jan 25, 2021

BonesJones said:
What does Wiggins do well? Score inefficiently? He's incredibly overrated.
Oubre is shooting 35% from the field and 20% from 3, and isnt the defender Jones is.
Kanter and Wiseman are equal. Wiseman has been inefficient for a C, but is the better defender (although Kanter has picked it up on that end lately).
Draymond is shooting 33% from the field and 23% from 3, while averaging less than 5ppg.

Nobody on their bench impresses me whatsoever.

i mean Hood is averaging 3.5 pts per game on 34% from the field. Even an overrated Wiggins is better than him at this point until Hood rounds back into shape. Also, we know Draymond's offensive stats don't come close to measuring his impact on the floor on both ends.

my point with that question was... if dame and steph are about equal, given the supporting casts, would we expect to stay afloat at a .500 level or so until CJ/Nurk return? Is that where should put the bar? Hope to stay around 6-9 or so in standings and then make a push once they come back?

Hoopguru · Jan 25, 2021

THE HCP said:
Just so I know how this works....... were we "out coached" tonight in our win against the Knicks?

not at all

BonesJones · Jan 25, 2021

THE HCP said:
I mean honestly. I don't understand it. Did he coach well tonight? I mean we beat one of the best defenses in the league missing 2-3 starters. So was it a well coached game? Did he take his timeouts when he was supposed to? Mad confusing.

Yes, he actually did. He came out with a defensive gameplan that wasnt the same cookie cutter crap and was a different defensive scheme that was the right call given the opponent. The team also made a concerted effort to move the ball and he even called a nice ATO play (backdoor lob to Giles). They also got DJJ going using him a bit more as a screener in roller. The bench also had a more structured offense than usual which made Simons more comfortable running things and he got going.

Stotts did a lot of things I've criticized him for not doing, which is exactly the point. New York played a very spirited 2nd half and brought things close while we struggled to deal with it, but that'll happen.

However, after every well coached game, he seems to follow it up with a cookie-cutter by-the-notecard coaching performance, so I'm not expecting much going into this one.

BonesJones · Jan 25, 2021

illmatic99 said:
i mean Hood is averaging 3.5 pts per game on 34% from the field. Even an overrated Wiggins is better than him at this point until Hood rounds back into shape. Also, we know Draymond's offensive stats don't come close to measuring his impact on the floor on both ends.

my point with that question was... if dame and steph are about equal, given the supporting casts, would we expect to stay afloat at a .500 level or so until CJ/Nurk return? Is that where should put the bar. Hope to stay around 6-9 or so in standings and then make a push once they come back?

Hood is more of a byproduct of returning from injury. Hood's been much better the past couple games. What's Wiggins and Oubre's excuse?

What you're saying about Draymond can also be said about RoCo IMO.

.500 is the bar. Should probably be a little above that if coached correctly. This should still be a top half team offensively and has solid defensive personnel.

illmatic99 · Jan 25, 2021

BonesJones said:
.500 is the bar. Should probably be a little above that if coached correctly. This should still be a top half team offensively and has solid defensive personnel.

ya just trying to manage expectations. 1-1 so far. Trying to figure out how many games Nurk/CJ will miss.

Thinking about 20 for Nurk.
30 for CJ.

Depends on covid.

Darkwebs · Jan 25, 2021

Tonight's Refs

Ed Malloy (#14)
Gediminas Petraitis (#50)
Brandon Schwab (#86)

Darkwebs · Jan 25, 2021

Tonight's game is an important one, as it will be the final determiner of this either being a winning or losing homestand, with the Blazers currently 2-2 during this stretch.

stampedehero · Jan 25, 2021

kjironman1 said:
I don't usually "prefer" losses. So my answer is leading by 15 at the end of the game. I do my laundry even during wins. It's why my wife leaves me alone during games.

Go get this one Blazers! ( In spite of all the posters that say the team sucks)

DDolla · Jan 25, 2021

Need to win this one again so we can have some cushion before hitting the road

SharpesTriumph · Jan 25, 2021

Thunder are bad, this should be a win.

We will drop a lot of games to decent teams with Nurk and CJ out; so they need to pick up these easy wins to stay in the playoff picture.

Game Thread GAME# 16: THUNDER @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 25, 2021 - MONDAY, 7:00, NBCSNW

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