The Portland Trail Blazers led by as many as 13 with ten minutes to go in the game, gave it all away, then did just enough to come out on top of the Sacramento Kings 124-123. Portland moves to 1-1 following
their second preseason game of the 2025-26 season and turn the Kings away to an 0-2 start.
Who Did Well?
It was nice to see Yang Hansen have a much sturdier outing than his NBA preseason debut, and tonight he put up 16 points, 4 boards, and 3 blocks in his 17 minutes off the bench. Spoiler: he had 3 turnovers and 5 fouls… also spoiler, he’s a rookie center and it’s to be expected.
Jerami Grant had somewhat of a bounceback outing himself after also suffering a disappointing first game. He missed all 5 of his three pointers, but still chipped in 18 points (buoyed by 8 free throw attempts) to lead all Blazers in his 18 bench minutes.
Shaedon Sharpe wasn’t as stellar as he was against the Warriors, but the mark of a star is being able to manufacture points despite a down outing. His 17 points (with 6 boards) looked confident and aggressive, and going 6-14 isn’t the end of the world. Worth noting he played more minutes (26) than anyone else in red and black.
While the box score doesn’t pop, Jrue Holiday’s 12 points, 3 boards, and 3 dimes had moments of, “oh, THAT’S why he was a critical piece on multiple championship teams.” I also remembered a moment where Holiday had a blown inside pass to Donovan Clingan in the first game of the preseason, and I saw Clingan telling Holiday to lob it next time. In the first quarter tonight, Holiday saw Clingan open inside and lobbed it up for the easy bucket. Little things like that will come more with reps and time.
Blake Wesley (13 points on 5-6 shooting) continues to look VERY pesky on defense, just as advertised. Offensively he sometimes goes too fast for his own good, but if he can play within himself and contribute like he did tonight while maintaining maniacal defensive energy, he’s going to get minutes even after Scoot comes back from injury.
Obligatory “Deni Avdija is good” post. 15-6-2 and didn’t even look look like his full self. Not sure if it’s just preseason ramp-up or he’s still recovering from playing EuroBasket, but to my eye he looked like he was going at like 92%.
The Bad
- Blown leads are not good. And yes, it’s preseason, but that’s two games in a row now. Come ON!
- Our own Conor Bergin reports that Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups says he held Toumani Camara out of the second half because he was dealing with some knee soreness. Not great.
What’s Next:
Portland will stay at home and face the Golden State Warriors again on Tuesday Oct. 14 at 7pm Pacific.
