Brandon's Bolts: Isaiah Hartenstein helps power Thunder (12-4) over Blazers (6-9) in debut

OKC 109 POR 99

Cray's recap:

Game: annoying. Nonetheless, mood: Hartensigh of relief.

It was ugly, but the Thunder won by double digits again, and the Isaiah Hartenstein minutes (+16) were mostly pretty beautiful. Oklahoma City led for most of the game, but was struggling to put Portland away with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter. That's when this happened.

Those were points 4 & 5 in a two-man show to put the game out of reach at 99-89: Jalen Williams (30 pts, 7 rbs, 8 ast, 4 stocks) and Hartenstein (13/14/3*/4) went on a 12-3 scoring run for those heartening two minutes and twenty three seconds of winning time against the Blazers. As usual, Shai was essential, making up for an off shooting night (7-19) by going 14-14 from the free throw (!) line.

Brandon's Bolts

• Thunder fans needed some good vibes going into a four-day break after losses to the Luka-less Mavs and the Without-Wemby Spurs. Enter Isaiah Hartenstein.
• Isaiah Hartenstein had a franchise record 14 rebounds in his Thunder debut. Oh and he also had 13 points, 3 assists, 4 blocks and was a game-high +16. iHart was instantly impactful on both sides of the ball.
• *Remember when we used to count Josh Giddey’s should’ve-been-assists back in the beginning of the rebuild? Hartenstein got Giddeyed by OKC’s rookies back to back from behind the back… on the same possession.
• OKC has beaten the Blazers 14 straight times. The last time Portland beat OKC, the #1 movie in America was Godzilla vs Kong and the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 was “Peaches” by Justin Bieber.
• Small scare when JDub went down early in the game after getting tangled up with Blazers rookie center Donovan Clingan. JDub limped to the locker room but came back shortly without a limp and proceeded to drop 30 points.
• Clingan is a huge human being. Reading “7’2 and 280 pounds” on a scouting report and seeing 7’2” and 280 pounds in person are two very different things.
• JDub must’ve seen Clingan in the Paycom Center hallways pre-game and told Hartenstein that he had to speed up that timeline.
• Cracking the All Star team in the West is tough, especially for first timers. But JDub is absolutely playing like an All Star and may force the coaches to select a second Thunder player. JDub is averaging 21.8/6.6/5.2/2.2 on 52/39/82 splits for the co-#1 seed in the West.
• Another good night from Ajay Mitchell. The second-round, two-way rookie had 10 points on 4-8 shooting including 2-3 from 3.
• Lu Dort is still shooting over 40% from 3 despite going 0-6 tonight and 2-8 last night. Lu is due.. for some positive shooting regression on this upcoming West Coast trip.
• Alex Caruso had by far his best offensive game in a Thunder jersey tonight: 17 points on 8-11 shooting and 1-2 from 3 in only 3 quarters.
• But Caruso aggravated his hip injury and missed the final period. Mark Daigneault says he will be re-evaluated on Thursday morning.
• The break comes at a good time for OKC. Isaiah Joe is dealing with a calf contusion. Caruso’s hip. Hopefully the Thunder come out of the break healthier.
• Speaking of.. Jaylin Williams was participating in shoot around pre-game. On October 30, the team said JWill would be re-evaluated in 4-6 weeks.
• Hey! I’m all done and I haven’t mentioned Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA had 28 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block and somehow he’s spoiled us to the point that that statline is an afterthought.

Next up: A four-day break, then a trip to Sacramento on Monday.