5 takeaways from the Portland Trail Blazers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder

Here are five takeaways from the Portland Trail Blazers’ 110-109 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

Insights are everywhere, just waiting to be grabbed. Even in the middle of an early March regular season game between two Western Conference non-contenders. Here are five important takeaways from the Trail Blazers’ big win.

5. Portland won the Plumlee-Nurkic trade

Jusuf Nurkic, who, along with a first-round pick (originally owned by Memphis) the Trail Blazers acquired from the Denver Nuggets in a trade for Mason Plumlee, had one heck of a night. He finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 blocks in 38 minutes.

Of course, Nurkic won’t do that every night, but if he can be 70-80 percent of Plumlee on a nightly basis, while playing on a cheaper contract and coming over with an additional first round pick, the Trail Blazers run away with the edge in the trade.

Of all of those stats, the assists are most important. Most believed Portland would miss Plumlee’s playmaking the most. Plumlee is one of the best passing bigs in the league, no doubt, but there’s something about Portland’s offense that brings the best out of centers in that regard.

Portland head coach Terry Stotts likes to use Nurkic as he used Plumlee, setting up high pick-and-rolls with dribble hand offs and passes to either Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum.

Nurkic averaged 1.1 assists per game in his three-and-a-half years in Denver. He’s exceeded that average in four of his five games as a Trail Blazer.

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