The Portland Trail Blazers lost 118-114 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s regular-season opener at the Moda Center. But if the night was measured by Portland playing with
the principles and identity the team preached all preseason, then Game 1 of 82 was a big, fat success.
Physical, disruptive defense? Check.
Fast-paced, movement-based offense? Check.
A delighted home crowd? Check.
Continuing their momentum from the second half of last season, the Blazers came out with an edge on opening night. They were relentless with 94-feet defensive pressure all game, and they led for 41 straight minutes — not just holding Minnesota at bay but controlling the game and forcing the 2025 Western Conference runner-up to play on their heels. Then in a back-and-forth crunch time, the Blazers missed some key offensive opportunities, while superstar Anthony Edwards (41 points on 14-28 shooting) hit clutch, superstar-like buckets. That was just enough to get Minnesota over the hump.
Despite the loss, Blazers players and Head Coach Chauncey Billups stayed positive after the game. They took pride in their performance.
“I just want to create an environment when if you do beat us, you’re gonna have to go earn it,” Billups said. “ … That’s what we want. We want guys to work, earn their keep, and we did that.”
The performance looked promising through the lens of what it could mean for the rest of Portland’s season. It certainly was a better tone-setter than last season’s regular-season opener when the Blazers got embarrassed by 36 points against the Golden State Warriors. If Wednesday night was any indication, the Blazers shouldn’t get embarrassed much this season. They’ll play a fun, competitive, lunchpail hero’s brand of basketball that should get the Moda Center rocking again.
“Who doesn’t want to watch their players play their hardest basketball?” said Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle in the postgame locker room. “We’re picking up full court every possession. We’re pushing the ball in transition every possession we can, and it feels like, as a fan, you’re getting every dollar’s worth of your tickets because of the effort that’s been given. There’s always criticism of guys not playing hard and all this stuff, and I just don’t think anyone’s ever gonna be able to say that about the Trail Blazers.”
Thybulle, who missed Portland’s four preseason games due to right knee soreness, returned on Wednesday to give Portland another defensive jolt in 14 minutes off the bench. He was part of a murderer’s row of a defensive lineup at the start of the second quarter that also featured Jrue Holiday, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan. For a three-minute burst, the group sped up Minnesota’s offense, got into ball-handlers on the perimeter, forced tough catches, got hands in passing lanes, switched almost everything and stayed in lockstep with cutters — all while the 7-foot-2 Clingan stood guard on the backline. The sequence was headlined by three straight Minnesota turnovers, two courtesy of Thybulle interceptions, and it was a flurry of in-sync moving parts.
Thybulle likened the defensive sequence to being in a flow state, one that the Blazers went in and out of against Minnesota. The more they play together, the more they’ll be able to tap into it, Thybulle said.
“I’ve been watching them do it for awhile now, and it’s even better to be a part of it,” he said. “We’re just trying to find more opportunities to make that happen and be in that flow.”
“It’s the best feeling when you feel the whole team being connected, everybody’s on the same page, especially on the defensive side,” Camara added. “I think it’s a thing that not a lot of teams take a lot of pride in, so being able to do that and have all guys on the court being able to show that commitment toward defense, I think it’s huge.”
The Blazers active defense won the turnover battle 19-15 and registered 24 deflections to Minnesota’s 16. Minnesota starting point guard Donte DiVincenzo felt the bulk of that pain, ending with six turnovers. As promised in the preseason, Billups went 10 deep in the rotation to keep legs fresh enough to play with this type of pressure and pace. Backup guard Blake Wesley was another defensive standout, forcing two steals and eliciting cheers from the home crowd with his hustle. Outside of rookie center Yang Hansen — who played just five minutes and struggled on defense after Minnesota went small against him — each Blazer fit into the defensive puzzle and looked bought in.
The Blazers offense wasn’t always pretty, but it was rarely stagnant. Even when Portland in the halfcourt, the offense featured lots of downhill force and intuitive cuts, helping register 25 assists on 36 made baskets. Coming off the bench for the first time in his Blazer tenure, a fired-up Jerami Grant led the way with 29 points on 10-14 shooting (4-7 on 3s), while Avdija added 20 points and seven rebounds.
“He’s a professional and he wants to win,” Holiday said about Grant. “I think he showed that.”
Preseason is often a time of idealism about how teams want to play. However, a team saying how they want to play and then executing that vision in the regular season isn’t always easy. The Blazers did that against Minnesota, and it was a joy to watch.
“Nah,” said Holiday when asked if he was surprised by how well-established Portland’s play style was on night one. “I feel like the team is built for that type of identity.”
So, Wednesday night was a good starting point for the Blazers, even though it ended in a loss. Now they have 81 more games to keep building.
“We play so hard. It’s exhausting for everyone,” Thybulle said. “But at the end of the day, we’re going to do it more than everyone else and get in better shape than everyone else and be able to out-stand them. Just continuing to be committed to that process and understand that along the way there’ll be mistakes made and games lost, but all this is setting us up for the end of the season so we can hopefully do something special.”
More Notes
- Wednesday night’s game included a notable attendee: Tom Dundon. The Blazers’ prospective new owner sat court-side alongside current Blazers Owner Jody Allen and General Manager Joe Cronin.
- “It means a lot for me just to see Jody sitting there with Tom and the rest of the group,” Billups said. “Obviously, things are going to change around here. … It’s good to see them together and I hope he liked what he saw.”
- Shaedon Sharpe struggled to find his shot in the regular-season opener. He finished with 15 points, four assists, two rebounds, one steal and four turnovers while shooting 5-20 from the field (3-9 on 3s).
- Anthony Edwards scored an isolation bucket against Blazers defensive ace Toumani Camara with 6.8 seconds left to give Minnesota the decisive 4-point lead. Edwards created distance with a stepback and then buried a midrange jumper on the play. After the game, Camara discussed the matchup with Edwards, who was his college teammate for a season at the University of Georgia: “I told him I’m gonna see him again, though. It’s friendly competition. The best way to show respect to one another is go to 100, make his life hell and he’s trying to do the same thing for me.”
