The Portland Trail Blazers hoped to make up for their tough game against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday with a relatively easy one against the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday night. OKC had other plans. The Thunder didn’t play pretty. They didn’t even play that smart. They did commit to defense and they ran for quick scores when their slower-developing plays came up empty. Those two characteristics, plus beating out Portland in a couple of key categories, were enough to secure a 98-81 win for Oklahoma City.
If you missed the action, we have a sketch of it in our quarter-by-quarter recap.