After starting the season 6-1, the Portland Trail Blazers lost back-to-back games to the Lakers and Spurs, prompting questions about whether their early-season success was more of a mirage than a sign of something authentic.
They bounced back Tuesday night at home against the Thunder, beating Oklahoma City 123-103. With the game tied at halftime, Portland came out and outscored the Thunder by 17 points in the third quarter, led by Damian Lillard’s 13 points. Lillard’s third-quarter barrage included a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that sent the Portland crowd into a frenzy.
He finished with 25 PTS as the @trailblazers improved to 7-3!
Tuesday Night’s Starting Lineup Change
After losing Ja Morant to a hamstring injury four games into the season, coach Micah Nori started Scoot Henderson in Morant’s place for the next five games. Tuesday, Nori moved Henderson back to the bench and inserted Sidy Cissoko, a 6-foot-6 forward from France in his fourth NBA season, into the starting lineup.
When asked about the change after Tuesday’s game, Nori said:
“My thought process was that I wanted to get Scoot [Henderson] with the second unit again because I just felt like with Deni [Advija] and with [Damian Lillard], with that first group, those guys were taking the majority of the handling of the basketball, and I wanted to get Scoot with that second unit. It also allowed me to clean up where it got [Damian Lillard] back to playing what he’s used to his whole career, which is two stints in a half, instead of three.”
“So it is kind of a combination of that. I honestly don’t look at it all in silos. I look at it as how one move affects the other, and it was just a combination of all of those things, and, Sidy [Cissoko] started the game those first five minutes and allows us to get Jrue [Holliday] in, and Sidy [Cissoko] ended up playing 33 minutes, but I thought that it worked out well for everybody.”
Lillard acknowledged the change after the game and appeared to approve of it.
“I think before, the stretches were pretty quick. Sometimes it can be difficult to get in a real rhythm when you are in and out of the game so fast. I felt super fresh with those short stints. I think this change is good because I’m able to rest for a decent period throughout the game, but I’m playing longer stretches, so it allows me to kind of set up the game the way that I typically do.”
Micah Nori’s First-Year Success
Nori, who is on a much-discussed one-year contract with Portland, has seemingly pulled all the right strings for a Trail Blazers team that appeared to be an odd fit on paper before the season. Even after losing Morant, who had played phenomenally to start the season, Portland has weathered the storm and now sits at 7-3, good for eighth place in a loaded Western Conference.
The Trail Blazers have taken advantage of a relatively light schedule to start the season, with two wins against the Suns and one each against the Jazz and Kings. However, they also have a few quality victories against the Lakers, Nuggets and now the Thunder.
Portland faces Oklahoma City again at home Wednesday night in an unusual back-to-back. In a Western Conference where one loss can send a team tumbling down the standings, every game counts.
Trail Blazers Coach Micah Nori Is Pushing All the Right Buttons