The Portland Trail Blazers staked a claim to a strong run at the 2026 NBA Playoffs on Friday night, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-104 in a game that wasn\u2019t decided until the final seconds of play. To quote a former Blazers star, both teams played hard in this one. It wasn\u2019t a cliche, either. The evening featured centers going at each other like rabid buffalo, guards shooting like an arcade, and plenty of banging in the paint and at the boards. When the smoke cleared, Portland owned the victory and, at least for now, 8th-place status in the Western Conference via their 35-36 record. The Los Angeles Clippers remain percentage points behind the Blazers at 34-36.<\/p>\n
Here are a few analytical observations from the evening.<\/p>\n
From the right angle, Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan resembles WWE superstar Gunther. On the court, his play is starting to support that comparison. Clingan is big. We already knew that. But his execution over the latter part of the season has gotten technically precise and dreadfully effective. His timing on blocks is pristine. He\u2019s making the right decision the vast majority of the time about whether to go for the swat or just contest shots. And oh my gosh, his awareness on the offensive end has become scary. He cuts at the right time, making himself available to catch the ball. His finishes are quick. On the perimeter, he\u2019s finding other cutters with passes. He also looks confident on his three-point shot without overusing it.<\/p>\n
This is peak Donovan Clingan and the Blazers are looking very good because of it. He finished the game with 21 points on 9-13 shooting, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 4 assists.<\/p>\n
If you had a chance to watch this game live, you\u2019re in good company. The Blazers did the same thing for much of the evening in their halfcourt offense. When they did feature hard cuts and crisp passing, they tended to dominate. But oh boy, the sets in which one dribbler pounded the floor while everyone else stood were plentiful. I absolutely respect the scoring ability of Jrue Holiday, Jerami Grant, and especially Deni Avdija. I\u2019m down with their offense. But ooooh, can we find some off-ball action somewhere when those guys have the rock? It\u2019s not like the other four players are stretching the floor by camping at the three-point arc. A. They can\u2019t shoot that well. And\u2026 B. They\u2019re not that far out on the floor, allowing defenders to bunch up and close quickly. Right now Portland\u2019s halfcourt offense doesn\u2019t seem planned as much as surrendered to.<\/p>\n
Now, the flip side is that the staid offense allows the opponent to collapse on drivers, which takes them away from their original men, who are now free to offensive rebound the ensuing iso misses. THAT part worked pretty well. But it\u2019s still not the most efficient or sustainable way to run an offense.<\/p>\n
His minutes are limited, but Portland doesn\u2019t have a better contesting player at the opposing three-point arc right now than Matisse Thybulle. He\u2019s continually in the face of shooters, often denying them the opportunity to get the shot up. But he\u2019s not flying past them or getting out of position. When they pull the ball back down, he\u2019s still there, right in front of them, preventing the reset or drive.<\/p>\n
Portland\u2019s younger players should watch tape of Thybulle contests. Right now the three-point defense, though active, is kind of a circus. You never know who\u2019s going to fly by on the trapeze or get stuck in a slow-moving clown car. Consistent, compact, effective: the Blazers can use more of what Thybulle brings.<\/p>\n
Ayo Dosunmu is the Thybulle analog on Minnesota\u2019s side. At the trade deadline I pined for him a bit. That affection, and envy, is still alive. Not only does he close on shooters as well as Thybulle does, he can run the offense a little, pass, rebound, drive, and even shoot. Dosunmu has 17 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, and only 2 turnovers tonight. What a luxury for Minnesota to have him in the guard corps with Anthony Edwards out.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve mentioned it before in recaps, but in a game like this with big men prominent, it bears repeating. Rudy Gobert is a giant human being. Donovan Clingan is also a giant human being. Both seven-footers set solid and majestic screens. But Minnesota dribblers use those screens so much better than Portland\u2019s do.<\/p>\n
Granted, the Blazers hit Clingan on the roll several times tonight to good effect. But the initial screens had much less impact, simply because Portland\u2019s ball-handlers cross the screen so far away from Clingan\u2019s body. It\u2019s almost like a karaoke play, in the style of a pick-and-roll rather than the authentic thing. Perimeter defenders simply slide between the dribbler and pick-setter as if the screen was never there. Meanwhile Blazers defenders hit Gobert\u2019s body on Minnesota screens, losing a step and a half to the ball-handler trying to get around the pick.<\/p>\n
Multiple aspects of Portland\u2019s game are sloppy, but this one drives me crazy, simply because Clingan\u2019s screen potential is so high. If you\u2019re going to do something, do it right.<\/p>\n
The emphasis in this game fell on interior scoring. Both teams shot threes, of course, but the real battle came inside. The Blazers had 54 paint points and the \u2018Wolves 46. Watching centers and power forwards throw their bodies around inside was a throwback to a different era\u2026kind of refreshing, really.<\/p>\n
Adjacent to that was the rebounding battle. Portland started out super strong faded in the third, then came back with a vengeance late. The Blazers ended up with 52 rebounds, 28 offensive. The Timberwolves had 43 and 14.<\/p>\n
Minnesota definitely suffered from the absence of All-NBA star Anthony Edwards, but Julius Randle stepped up for them in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 in the frame on his way to 19 total in the game. Randle is exactly the kind of tweener that causes Portland fits at the forward positions: too fast and agile for Clingan to guard, too big for Portland\u2019s power forwards. Fortunately the Blazers survived Randle\u2019s late run, but it was a near thing.<\/p>\n
Randle and the Timberwolves didn\u2019t get the last laugh, however. Jerami Grant hit a pair of three-pointers late, one off a huge screen by Clingan, to seal the deal for Portland. He was definitely clutch when other Blazers were struggling. The victory splashes capped Grant\u2019s night of 26 points on 10-16 shooting, 4-9 from the arc, with 5 rebounds, 4 turnovers, and 3 steals.<\/p>\n
The Blazers now travel to Denver to face the Nuggets on Sunday at 2:00 PM, Pacific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers staked a claim to a strong run at the 2026 NBA Playoffs on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,37787,307,152,3954,6,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-670161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers-analysis","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","12":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116265446785176431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}