The Portland Trail Blazers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night in overtime, falling in a gritty, hard-fought game that featured 51 points from Damian Lillard and the ejection of Jusuf Nurkic. This completed a season-series sweep for Oklahoma City over Portland. Takes abound, ranging from Lillard’s brilliance to consternation at NBA officials to lamentation over Portland’s playoffs chances against tough mid-tier opponents like OKC.
The Blazers lost the game for a couple reasons. Their three-point shooting was way off (9-41, 22,0%). They generated plenty of free throws, offensive rebounds, and even matched the Thunder in fast-break points (an OKC specialty), but they couldn’t overcome the lack of triples.