The Oklahoma City Thunder played on the second night of a back-to-back against the Portland Trailblazers in what was a maturity test for the Bricktown boys. The last time they had a back-to-back set with travel involved, the Thunder came out flat and dropped a game to a lowly opponent.
OKC Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a point to mention that the Thunder did not like the way they came out last week on the disappointing back-to-back and made it a point to change that.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander “we didn’t like the way we played off the last back to back” said it was an emphasis to fix that
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) January 12, 2024
While Portland is not a world-beater, the Thunder's overall better defensive effort and engagement were outstanding. Eventually, Oklahoma City swelled their lead to over 60 points. After Scoot Henderson's personal 5-0 run to start the game, it was all Thunder.
Three takeaways from the OKC Thunder beat down of the Portland Trailblazers: Has Josh Giddey turned the corner?
Just one lead change, no ties, and a beatdown from start to finish on Thursday were highlighted by near-perfect basketball. Oklahoma City shot 57 percent from the floor, 40 percent from beyond the arc, and 86 percent from the line.
That is just a jaw-dropping level of efficiency with six scorers in double-figures, and over 17 minutes of "garbage time" action due to the Thunder dominating this contest from start to finish.
In this game, there were three key takeaways, highlighted by Josh Giddey logging his ninth career triple-double.
However, the first takeaway is how good this Thunder team is. Independent of their age, their ability to adjust and develop game-to-game with each passing scenario is unheard of.
This was just another example of them learning on the fly and applying those lessons at warp speed. Now, Let's get into Takeaways two and three from this Portland contest.