After the Portland Trail Blazers’ breezy, nationally-televised win over the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, Sam Vecenie offered high praise for Portland’s hometown heroes on the latest episode of his Game Theory podcast. The long-time NBA voice said that the Blazers, “…are absolutely a real team, in my opinion. This is a team that has a chance to be in the top-six in the West.”
Vecenie commended several individual performances whose sum added up to be greater than their parts. Damian Lillard’s ability
to blow by Alex Caruso gained a mention, as did Donovan Clingan’s rim deterrence, Deni Avdija’s unstoppable drive to get into the paint, Jrue Holiday’s impact beyond the counting stats, and Micah Nori’s offensive schemes.
The player who earned the most airtime for his contribution was Toumani Camara, whose relentless hounding of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander forced the reigning MVP into an 8-for-22 shooting night. According to Vecenie, “…Toumani Camara is having one of the better defensive seasons of a player I’ve seen in the NBA so far this year.” He later added, “Toumani Camara, I think is like very clearly an All-Defense guy.”
The one piece of individual criticism that slowed the flow of positivity was an understated appraisal of Scoot Henderson—an acknowledgement that it “hasn’t been the best start to the year for Scoot,” who “looks as bad as he’s been since his rookie year.”
Sam Vecenie’s assessment of the Blazers gives fans an opportunity to savor last night’s victory while we wait to see if the recipe for success leads to another delicious win in tonight’s rematch against the Thunder.
The Blazers talk begins at the 19:37 mark of the podcast.
