Prior to Friday night the Portland Trail Blazers hadn’t suffered a single double-digit loss in the entire 2025-26 season. That ended abruptly and decisively in Houston as Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets
downed Portland 140-116. The game featured many of the hallmarks of Portland play: big runs, huge dunks, fast and easy scoring. But the Rockets showed the Blazers that anything Portland could do, Houston could do better. And then some. In the end, it wasn’t even close as the Rockets sent the Blazers to their 6th defeat of the season in 12 games.
Here are some of the trends that typified the game.
Fast and Faster
The Blazers came out ready to push the pace, flying down the court, penetrating to the middle, and either scoring or kicking out for threes. Those threes fell early too, leading to a pleasing start to the game for Portland, a 16-7 lead.
Then Houston said, “So you wanna run, eh? Ok.” Their fast break went into overdrive and they started scoring on the Blazers faster than Portland could score on them.
By the end of the first, Portland had scored 32 points. That’s usually happy time for them! Except the Rockets had 41 in that same span.
That pretty much set the tone for the game. Whenever the Blazers excelled, Houston did that plus 10%. And when Portland fell off their game, the Rockets demolished them. The classic example came in the third period, where Portland ran, shot freely, and dunked with abandon but still found themselves falling behind by 20+.
The Blazers finished with 89 field goal attempts, 9 fast break points, and just 6 turnovers forced. Houston had 106 attempts, 23 on the break, and 20 forced turnovers. They took Portland’s recipe for success, added some truffle oil and foie gras, and served it right back to the Blazers on an “L”-shaped platter.
Star Power
After the Rockets had seen what the Blazers had, they said, “Let us show you what you DON’T have.” Welcome to the game, 6’10 from Texas, Kevin Durant. With the memory of the Blazers passing him up in the 2007 NBA Draft perhaps fresh in his mind, Durant burned the Blazers for 16 points in the first quarter alone. He ended up with 30 points on 12-19 shooting. Portland had no answer.
Threes?
Remember those three-pointers that buoyed the Blazers early in the game? They returned, on and off, through the ensuing minutes but never proved enough of a stable platform to build a win off of. That’s mostly because Houston hit them too. Portland finished the game 13-36 from the arc, the Rockets 17-45. The percentages are similar, but as the Blazers have been demonstrating all season, the team that gets more three-pointers up often wins.
As we’ve mentioned many times, the Blazers still have trouble recovering to the arc off of their initial stops of the ball. This is particularly true in lineups featuring Donovan Clingan.
Offensive Boards
On the bright side, Clingan and the Blazers have reclaimed their status as one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league after a shaky start to the season in that department. Portland had 16 offensive boards tonight. They love the extra shots generated by that strong presence on the boards.
Unfortunately, the Rockets went with Steven Adams and double-big lineups in the second half. Adams have 5 offensive boards in 5 minutes of play, erasing Portland’s early advantage and leading Houston to 20 total offensive boards.
At the Rim
We can’t overemphasize how assiduous the Blazers are at getting the ball to the rim in their initial offense. Good times and bad, the Blazers made like Grond the Wolf-headed Battering Ram at the Gates of Gondor. You have to admire their guts and resolution, plus the open shots they’re getting from simple dishes off of those drives. Whether they hit those shots or not is a matter of personnel, but the offense–and their dedication to it–sure is paying dividends.
On a related note, this game featured some of the best dunks (on both sides) that we’ve seen in an NBA game in a loooong time. Wow.
Sharpe Hard-Headed
Shaedon Sharpe finished this game with 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists, but that wasn’t really the story. He spent large portions of the evening getting blocked, stripped, and bumped all over the court. Houston did as good of a job swatting and bullying him as anyone we’ve yet seen. But Shaedon kept on going. He dove to the floor for loose balls, kept active in the passing lanes, and kept on driving to the cup on offense. No matter how the Rockets hit him, he kept hitting back. Great to see.
Have Mercy, Deni!
Deni Avdija had one of the quietest first halves he’s produced all season, scoring only 4 points. He made up for that with 13 in the third period, most coming late in the frame after Houston had built a 23-point lead. Avdija hit threes, got ridiculous and-ones, and pretty much owned the court for a 10-minute stretch. He finished the game with 22 points and 10 rebounds, tempered only by 7 turnovers. Our kingdom for a back-up points guard.
Speaking of…
Holiday Road
Jrue Holiday registered 13 points and 6 assists but we should just take a moment to appreciate how big he’s been on this road trip for the Blazers. He’s never the leading scorer. He’s not a highlight machine. But his passing and his ability to read the defensive play correctly provide glue for this lineup in a way no other player can. More to the point, you can see the difference when anybody else but him handles the ball. (Thanks, Injury Bug.)
The best thing we could probably say is that if you could have two of any player on this squad right now, you’d want two Jrues and it wouldn’t even be close. This is pretty much what the Blazers were hoping for when they traded for Holiday. I’m sure they love it when a plan comes together.
Up Next
Portland plays one more game on this road trip, meeting the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 PM, Pacific.
