Three Takeaways from OKC Thunder's Blowout win over Trail Blazers

The Oklahoma City Thunder get five straight wins, defeat the Portland Trail Blazers in easy fashion.

Nov 1, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams (8) while surrounded by his teammates after the game against the Portland Trailblazers at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Murphy-Imagn Images / Brian Murphy-Imagn Images

For the fifth straight time this season, the Oklahoma City Thunder coasted to a win.

The Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers 137-114 on Friday night. It was a fairly competitive first half, but after a 38-17 run in the third quarter, Oklahoma City had a win in its pocket.

It was a balanced scoring effort from the Thunder, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's 30 points, seven rebounds and six assists on 12-of-18 shooting led the way in all. After a tough night efficiency-wise during the previous game, the MVP candidate shined through.

Here are three takeaways from the double-digit win:

A Historic Start

After last night's win, Oklahoma City officially became the first team in NBA history to start the regular season with five straight victories of 12+ points.

Of course a slightly cherry-picked stat, it still encapsulates just how dominant the Thunder has been so far this year. It's taken care of business against all its opponents, mostly often by a double-digit margin.

Aside from the Denver Nuggets. Oklahoma City hasn't played any team that's exactly competing for a legitimate playoff spot. However, its still an impressive start nevetheless, and projects well on where it could finish by the end of the season.

The Thunder could realistically keep building up this tempo as the year progresses, and if it does, it's going to be tough for any other team to stop it. For now, it gets to relish in history.

Jalen Williams is Back?

One of the few potential dissapointing areas of the season thus far has been the peformance of Jalen Williams, even if Oklahoma City is holding the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference right now.

The forward has struggled mightily in efficieney through five games, while Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren have put up big numbers and lead the Thunder to easy wins. That changed against the Trail Blazers, as he dropped 22 points, five rebounds and four assists on 8-of-12 shooting.

The efficiency was more than back up for Williams, shooting a 4-of-6 clip from behind the arc alone. It was taking longer than expected for him to start getting his jumper up to speed, but now that it is, Oklahoma City is even more lethal from everywhere.

It's a testament to how strong the Thunder's roster is -- Williams underperforming hasn't caused it to lose any basketball games, although it still needs on of its "big three" cornerstones to get back to his usual production.

Bench Unit Shows Up

The stars in Oklahoma City's starting lineup certainly take up most of the attention on the games that Oklahoma City does win, but a few key bench players helped it defeat Portland.

Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins both scored 13 points in their respective outings, hitting shots on an efficient basis and playing strong defense on the perimeter. Following them was Ousmane Dieng's 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, who has been a slight surprise in vast improvement from a year ago.

Even when Alex Caruso scored just six points, it's almost a given that he made an impact on the defensive or rebounding side of the game. He's also there to knock down some 3-pointers, but when the rest of the roster has so much going on, it's an area the veteran can take a hold of.

A key to any real contender is that it has the necessary depth to get through a season, and the Thunder more than has that. Not only does it have the numbers, it has the quality play behind it.

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