On the first of a back-to-back on the road against the Portland Blazers, Mark Daigneault and the Oklahoma City Thunder fell 123-103 on Tuesday. Thunder's Chet Holmgren is closer to coming back after participating in a pregame shootaround. However, Oklahoma City could have used the All-Star forward on both ends of the floor in a 20-point blowout loss. Damian Lillard (25 points) and All-Star Deni Avdija (24 points) combined for 49 points on 16-for-30 shooting to lead Portland to victory.

After the loss, Daigneault addressed the Thunder's shortcomings against the Blazers, who gave his team its third regular-season loss.

“I think some of it is just the pressure they can apply on the perimeter, combined with, especially, Clingan, back at the rim. So, they're kind of up the floor against you, and making things hard to get into, but they kind of got him parked back there, and able to patrol the paint,” Daigneault said. “It makes it difficult. I thought we got some good attacks that we can learn from and try to get more of tomorrow. But they were the better team tonight.”

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault commended the Blazers' approach on both ends of the floor.

“They were strong with the ball. They were aggressive. They were attacking — that's obviously been a strength of ours,” Daigneault added. “I thought our help defense tonight was pretty good in the first half. And then, we got loose in the second half. Things we can learn from. They were the better team tonight, but there's definitely correctable fundamental things that we can get into the game that'll give us a better chance tomorrow.”

Lillard went 8-for-15, including four triples, and finished with three rebounds, three assists, and one steal in his first game against the Thunder since spending the 2025-26 season recovering from a ruptured Achilles.

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“Congrats to him for being back on the court,” Daigneault said. “Those long rehabs are difficult. He hasn't lost a step. He's come back looking great. And he was obviously great in the third [quarter]. That certainly changed the game when he rattled those off. It opened the spread up for them. He's a great player. You just gotta stay on it for 48 minutes against guys like him. He got the best of us in the third quarter for sure.”

Second-year forward Nique Clifford made his Thunder debut in Tuesday's loss against the Blazers. Daigneault joked that Clifford probably doesn't even know his first name, as in, that's how new he is to Oklahoma City's system. However, he's looking forward to correcting his team's mistakes when they run it back against the Blazers on Wednesday.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 26 points and eight rebounds. Jared McCain finished with 21 points, including four threes, and Ajay Mitchell added 14 points.