The Portland Trail Blazers greeted the 2026-27 with an enormous celebration on Wednesday evening. Plenty of ancient civilizations and cultures—on earth, in sci-fi settings, and in alternate realties—have offered sacrifices to their suns. The Blazers put their own twist on things, offering a sacrifice of them. Portland posted a 43-12 first period, the largest lead in a season-opening first quarter in franchise history. They’d cruise onward to a 124-83 win, putting the NBA on notice that their intentions
to win are both pure and fully alive.
A resurgent, returning, fully armed and operational Damian Lillard led the Blazers with 25 points. Devin Booker led the Suns with 23.
Morant Comes to Play
Ja Morant came out fired up in the first quarter. Buoyed by the start, Morant produced 6 points on 2-3 three-point shooting in the frame. But that wasn’t as impressive as his three assists, a steal, an offensive rebound, and two defensive rebounds, all while sharing ball-handling duties with Lillard.
The most special thing about Morant is clearly his body control on the drive. Neither Portland nor Phoenix fielded anyone like him. In a world where modern NBA players get within five feet of the cup, then seemingly have no control over arms, hands, ball spin, or shot touch when they do so, Morant stands out. He isn’t finishing drives as much as choosing between 32 seemingly-equally-good ways to finish a drive.
Morant finished the game with 14 points on 6-8 shooting with 3 steals, 5 rebounds, and a team-leading 8 assists. Welcome to Portland, Ja!
So Does Dame
Lillard’s points were predictably spectacular. He shot 6-10 from the three-point arc, 5-5 from the foul line. Most importantly, he didn’t look injured or slow. His first step was good, his defense solid. His court vision is as good as ever. It looks, and feels, like Dame is home. This is the best version of Lillard. It’s clear this is where he belongs.
The Morant-Lillard backcourt appeared to function pretty well as well. Ja hit off-ball shots. Dame was able to cede control to his younger superstar teammate.
Threes Fall
The Blazers are set up to prosper without having to rely on the three-point shot. Their roster isn’t exactly stacked with long-distance specialists. The shadow side to that is, when the three-pointer does fall, it’s like a heavyweight fighter suddenly throwing haymakers as quickly and accurately as a welterweight.
That’s exactly what happened in the first half of this game. Portland came out hitting early and often. They shot 8-16, 50% on threes in the first period, 12-27, 44% at the half. That accuracy kept the Suns’ defense scrambling. And scrambling set up the next point in our analysis list just below.
Portland finished the game shooting 19-47 from deep. The Suns made just 6 of 31 triples. That’s a heck of an advantage for the Blazers.
Ball Movement
One of the obvious goals for Portland heading into the season was to not let the ball stagnate in any player’s hands, no matter how good that player may be. They lived out that mission tonight. The rock moved like it was crab legs at your local buffet. And yeah, everybody was eating. Six players scored in double figures. Only three took double-digit shot attempts. The ball was moving that freely.
One obvious reward was the open threes the Blazers feasted on. The converse was also true. Portland was able to execute multiple interior passes and lobs, scoring right at the rim.
Tonight the threes seriously eclipsed the interior scoring, but it’s important to know that the Blazers have those passes and cuts in their vision arsenal. They’re not going to hit from deep every night, but assiduous work on the inside might just carry them through regardless.
How good was the passing tonight? Portland had 32 assists on 45 made buckets. Having multiple ball handlers and passers helps sometimes.
Rebounding
Speaking of work on the inside, the Blazers were monsters on the boards tonight. They outrebounded the Suns 40-26, including 16 offensive rebounds. Ball control is tempo control. Portland had both in hand tonight.
Deni Avdija led the Blazers with 10 rebounds, but it was a group effort. All 13 players who saw action tonight grabbed at least 2 boards. It appears to be a team-wide focus.
Praiseworthy Defense
The Suns shot 0% for the first 6 minutes tonight. That’s one-eighth of the action in which Portland’s defense simply dominated. It was a hell of a way to open the season and the game.
That’s not something the team can reproduce, of course, but it was a fantastic statement about their priorities. They threw up a neon sign saying, “Scoring No Longer Welcome Here”.
Portland’s style of defense should become a hallmark for the year. They’re not stopping opponents at the point of attack. They’re just inhibiting, slowing down the play enough for a secondary defender to get in position for the strip, block, or stalling-stoppage. At that point one of two things happens. Either a pass floats to the exterior, where the Blazers simply reset and start the defense again, or an awkward shot goes up with an extra Portland defender closer to the bucket than their counterpart. That leads to a great rebounding opportunity and away you go.
Phoenix ended up shooting 30-84, 36% for the game. Like we said above, hot three-point shooting probably won’t carry the Blazers through the year, but this defense just might if they commit to keeping up the intensity. Stay tuned.
Micah Nori
The Blazers were clearly all on the same page tonight. Yes, the game turned out easy, but still, the unity was evident. That it showed up on the defensive end early underlines the point that the team is serious to start the year. Congratulations to Micah Nori not just on his first win as an NBA head coach, not just on the margin of victory, but on the manner and decorum with which this game was executed.
Extend Micah Nori.
Up Next
Boxscore
The Blazers now travel to Golden 1 Center to face the Sacramento Kings on Friday night at 7:00 PM.
