JOE MUSSATTO

The Oklahoman

Oklahoma City

Jan. 26—The Thunder’s second unit built a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and the starters held on for a 125-122 win against the Trail Blazers on Monday night in Portland.

Here are five takeaways from the game:

Like Mike

Hamidou Diallo drove the lane and kicked the ball back to Mike Muscala.

Portland hadn’t learned its lesson. Muscala, wide open at the top of the arc, drained his fifth 3-pointer of the first half.

“Try to shoot each shot independently, but making the first one always feels good,” Muscala said.

The Thunder’s backup center led all scorers at halftime with 16 points.

He finished with 23 points. It was his highest-scoring game as a Thunder and one point shy of a career high for the seven-year veteran.

“I give him a lot of credit, because he didn’t shoot the ball well over the weekend,” Thunder coach MarkDaigneault said.

Muscala shot 4-of-18 from 3-point range in the Thunder’s two losses at the Clippers on Friday and Sunday.

“He models the type of approach that we wanna try to get in the water here,” Daigneault said, “which is prepare as best you can and then get to 0 and 0 before every game.”

Raining threes

The Thunder shot 12-of-21 (57%) from 3-point range in the first half.

Muscala, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley, Isaiah Roby, Theo Maledon and Aleksej Pokusevski all contributed to the long-range effort.

All of those 3-pointers led to 69 first-half points for the Thunder. That set a season high by a 12-point margin.

The Thunder moved the ball, recording 17 assists on 24 made baskets.

OKC finished 18-of-40 (45%) from 3-point range and it shot 51% overall to take advantage of Portland’s porous defense. It was just the second time this

It was just the second time this season that the Thunder shot north of 50%.

Shai’s circus shot

Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t find the ball.

It was dislodged as he drove to the hoop, and it floated high above the backboard. But somehow it dropped in off the glass.

Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t try to play things cool. He wore a wide smile as he jogged back on defense.

He had no explanation for the play after the game.

“Honestly I don’t know what happened,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “A couple of the guys showed me the clip after the game and I still couldn’t figure out what happened. I don’t know if someone hit it and it hit off my head and it went in, but I’ll take the two points.”

The third-quarter bucket was a sign that just about everything was working for the Thunder point guard.

He finished with 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists. He was an efficient 8-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

But Gilgeous-Alexander was shaky from the free throw line to close the game. He missed five free throws in the final minute.

Surprise attack

The Trail Blazers were without four rotational players: CJ McCollum (left foot fracture), Jusuf Nurkic (right wrist fracture), Robert Covington (concussion) and Zach Collins (left ankle stress fracture).

It would’ve been easy to predict a high-scoring game from Damian Lillard, but Portland’s star point guard needed 23 shots to score 26 points.

Dort contained him as best as possible. Dort blocked a late Lillard 3-point attempt that was initially ruled a foul, but Daigneault challenged and the call was reversed as replay showed that Dort got all ball.

Lillard received unexpected help on offense.

Carmelo Anthony turned back the clock for 22 points. Gary Trent Jr. chipped in 22 more. Enes Kanter had 22 rebounds and 13 points.

Anfernee Simons scorched the Thunder for 26 points off the bench.

Thunder U

Roby, a 22-year-old born Feb. 3, 1998, was the Thunder’s oldest starter Monday night.

The ages of the other starters? Gilgeous-Alexander (22), Dort (21), Bazley (20), Theo Maledon (19).

“That’s crazy,” Roby said. “I still think of myself as a young guy being born in 1998, but we got guys, multiple guys, born in the 2000s on this team.”

Maledon earned his first career start in place of George Hill (right thumb sprain).

Hill sustained the injury Sunday afternoon against the Clippers. Daigneault said Hill is day-to-day and that it’s “just a matter of getting the ability to grip the basketball back.”

Maledon, born June 12, 2001, scored six points with four rebounds and four assists. Bazley had 19 points, Roby had 16

Bazley had 19 points, Roby had 16 and Dort had seven.

It was the seventh-youngest starting lineup in an NBA game since 1970-71.

“It’s less about the age for us,” Daigneault said. “It’s more just the experiences, and the learning and the growth ... It doesn’t matter if you’re 19 or 35. Those are the priorities for us and that’s certainly what we’re most proud of collectively.”