A 3-1 week with two of those wins coming to kickoff 2026 is what you like to see. Deni is continuing to showcase why he’s a wrecking ball, not only in the Western Conference but in the NBA as a whole. He lands as the Western Conference Player of the Week, where his assists led to a league-leading 107 points. He’s doing more than just scoring points and shooting free throws. He’s making this team better as a whole. With Jrue hopefully coming back next week, he can use any help he can get to lighten the load. We’re playing a bit more disciplined, even if we’re still missing free throws… I don’t know if Splitter is using the end of the calendar year as a benchmark, but it’s starting to feel like we’ve turned to a new chapter in this season’s book. We’re playing better and getting more wins. Who could be upset at good Blazer basketball?
Game #33 - 12/29 vs Dallas (122-125 W)
Two in a row? Sure, why not? Although Deni was a rebound away from a triple-double, Caleb Love made two massive threes late in the game to help us overcome Dallas in the last game of our 5-game homestand. I’ll say it again: I don’t understand how this kid, who played on superb UNC and Arizona teams, went undrafted. Fortunately for the Blazers, they have Mike Schmitz, who knows a thing or two about scouting basketball players. Obviously, a two-way player is not the most likely to drastically impact a team’s season, but with the guards who have been injured, he’s done a great job showing why he deserves an NBA contract. So much so that as of this point, he’s led all two-way players in points. Clingan and Shaedon were the only other two to score in double digits tonight, with 18 and 24, respectively. Portland’s defense has been playing better as of late, only allowing one team in the six games to score more than 120. Something that hasn’t been the case in December. We did allow six Mavericks to score in double digits, so there are still ways to improve, but overall, beating a Dallas team that has absolutely no direction. These close games resulting in victories are massive for this young team. If we can keep putting ourselves in a position to win, it proves we can pull them out.
Game #34 - 12/31 @ Oklahoma City (95-124 L)
The win against OKC back in November feels like a distant memory. After scoring the first points of the game, the Thunder quickly took control. This was the healthiest stretch of the Thunder’s season, with their big three starting at tip-off. To put this game in perspective, we were without Jrue and Jerami, and OKC had no one out. Every player on the Thunder who logged minutes had a positive +/-. On top of that, we surrendered 15 steals and 10 blocks, while committing 24 turnovers. This is a classic “forget it and move on” game. Nothing went right for this team, and we got outgunned from the jump. The Thunder are the juggernauts in the West, and one can safely assume they will compete for the team from the Western Conference in the NBA Finals. One of the few highlights of the game came from Shaedon, who stole a bad Aaron Wiggins pass and slammed it over him and Lou Dort. Blazers have the Pelicans as their first game in 2026, and have a chance to right their wrongs against a bad, bad team.
Game #35 - 1/2 @ New Orleans (122-109 W)
A New Year means a new mentality. And that new mentality is winning. Who cares that we smoked the Pelicans in New Orleans? Who cares that we gave up 35 points to Zion Williamson? What matters is that we committed only nine turnovers and had a 22-point lead with 5:35 left in the game. Deni scored 35 with 11 assists on 10/19 shooting, followed by Shaedon with 22 points on 9/18 shooting, and Caleb scoring 22 points on 6/11 from deep. We out-everything’d the Pelicans: better shooting, rebounds, assists, turnovers, and fouls committed. The Pelicans are continuing their run as the NBA's most dysfunctional franchise. At least Charlotte is figuring out how to win with a young core, and Utah has real players. New Orleans is making insane decisions in the draft and has yet to commit to a decision with Zion, who is one of the biggest “what if” players of this century. So the fact that we got boatraced by them three weeks ago is inexcusable. So getting a comfortable win against them in revenge is a fantastic way to kick off 2026.
Game #36 - 1/3 @ San Antonio (115-110 W)
No Wemby, no problem. This San Antonio team is still good without their best player, and Portland took advantage of his absence with stellar games from Deni, Toumani, and Clingan. Happy 25th birthday to Deni, who notched the 10th birthday triple-double (29/10/10), and the first since Luka did so on his 25th birthday back on Feb 28, 2024. Toumani hasn’t been lighting up the box score as of late, so it’s great to see him score 20 points on 7/11 shooting (5/9 from three-point) and collect eight rebounds. Clingan added 24 points and 12 rebounds, with 3 threes in the first 2:25 minutes of the game. To put this in perspective, he made 2 threes in his 74 games at UConn. This is a significant growth area for a big man not known for his deep-ball accuracy. This was a good grind-em-out game, with a 15-point lead midway through Q2, before the Spurs made a late run and got the game to four points at halftime. Although Caleb Love missed some late-game free throws, he didn’t let that get to him when he was able to stay focused defensively and get us the win. A lot of positives to take from this game, the most being that even though we still miss more free throws than we should, we don’t let it get to us, and we can compete and win tight games.
Pinwheel of the Week
Deni wins the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week, so it only makes sense for him to win my made-up award, too! Posting an almost triple-double this week, with 26.8p/8.3r/9.8a will get it done, especially when your team has a 3-1 week. At this point, he’s gotta be a lock for an All-Star Reserve spot. Yes, that may not be very objective, but he’s the main reason we’re winning most of these games.
Record: 3-1 (16-20)
Week 12 Games: Mon 1/5 vs Utah, Wed 1/7 vs Houston, Fri 1/9 vs Houston, Sun 1/11 vs New York