The Portland Trail Blazers ended their seven-game trip with a more-than-respectable 4-3 record.
The only disappointing moment came when blowing a chance to pick up a win Friday at Oklahoma City, which sat its five starters.
But to be fair, that game figured to be a loss when the trip began on Feb. 24.
“I thought it was a really good trip for us with the exception of tonight’s game,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters after the Blazers lost 107-89 to the Thunder. “We had a chance to win every single game.”
The Blazers' four wins came against some of the worst teams in the NBA in Utah (15-48), Brooklyn (21-41), Washington (12-49) and Philadelphia (21-41).
Still, winning any road game is tough. The Blazers are 12-22 away from the Moda Center.
The Blazers lost 133-129 in overtime at Cleveland (53-10), which sat All-Star Donovan Mitchell. The second loss came 128-118 at Boston (45-18). Then came the loss at the Thunder (52-11).
“We knew that it was going to be a really tough trip playing against some tough teams, particularly at the end of the trip,” Billups said.
Understandably, the Blazers appeared to run out of gas in the seventh game of a long trip.
“This was the only game on the trip that I will say we never really gave ourselves a real chance in terms of how we fought and how we paid attention to detail,” Billups said.
But Billups wasn’t willing to accept any excuses.
“I don’t believe in that,” he said. “It was just a basketball game. It’s not like we played last night. We were good to go. I don’t blame it on excuses. It is what it is. You’ve got to play the game. And I thought we prepared ourselves well enough and just didn’t come out and execute.”
Several positives occurred on the trip:
Shaedon Sharpe shined: Sharpe had his best stretch of the season, averaging 22.1 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 49.2% from the field and 34.8% from three-point range. He scored a career-high 36 points at the Wizards and had a career-high 11 rebounds at the 76ers.
Portland Trail Blazers v Oklahoma City Thunder
Scoot Henderson #00 of the Portland Trail Blazers drives to the basket during the first quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center on March 7, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)Getty Images
Scoot Henderson delivered: The backup point guard performed well in a reserve role, averaging 14.6 points and 5.0 assists. His shooting dipped a bit from his previous run to 42.9% from the field and 36.8% from beyond the arc. But those numbers were solid and appear to have become his floor.
Duop Reath and Jabari Walker answered the call: Injuries to Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III meant more minutes for Reath and Walker. Both came through with consistent play that only further solidified the team’s overall depth.
Reath saw at least 18 minutes of action in three games and averaged 9.3 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 10 of 18 from the field (55.6%) and 6 of 13 on threes (46.2%).
Walker, in seven games, averaged 8.0 points with 4.6 rebounds and shot like an All-Star. He made 61.1% of his field goal attempts and 50% from three-point range. He hit all six three-point attempts in the loss at Boston, joining a select list of Blazers to have shot perfectly with at least six makes.
More: Deni Avdija had his first career triple-double at Cleveland, Toumani Camara continued to lock down opposing scorers and Donovan Clingan averaged 7.1 points and 9.0 rebounds.
PLAY-IN CHASE
The Blazers remain four games behind 10th-place Dallas (32-32) and 1½ behind 11th-place Phoenix (29-34). Running both down is possible, especially after the Mavericks lost Kyrie Irving (knee) for the season.
But Portland must defeat winning teams. That hasn’t happened since Feb. 6 (Sacramento). The Blazers have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the league.
They play eight of their next nine at home, starting Sunday with the Detroit Pistons. Portland plays Monday at Golden State and then faces a seven-game stretch that features matchups with Memphis (39-24), Denver (41-22), Boston and Cleveland.
A five-game trip follows. But that’s down the road. For now, the Blazers are just glad to be returning to play at the Moda Center for most of the next two weeks.
“We get to finally go home,” Billups said. “At least for a day … We’re all excited about that.”
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)