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Toronto Raptors at Philadelphia 76ers
2026-27 · Regular season
Isaiah Hartenstein on guarding Deni Avdija: ‘I don’t think he really did much,’ as Mark Daigneault explains the Thunder’s two-center plan in a second loss at Portland
Isaiah Hartenstein said Deni Avdija did not do much when he guarded him, Mark Daigneault explained why the short-handed Thunder used their center on Portland’s best driver and paired him with Aday Mara, and the Blazers finished a two-game sweep with a 118-108 win.
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Isaiah Hartenstein spent long stretches of Wednesday night guarding Deni Avdija, and after the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 118-108 loss in Portland he made clear he would do it again. “I think when I was on him, I don’t think he really did much, to be honest,” Hartenstein said. “He’s a great player, but I think I just pride myself on being kind of versatile, and we’re in a situation where I have to be versatile.”
The Trail Blazers finished a two-game sweep of the Thunder in 24 hours, a night after winning 123-103 at the Moda Center. This one was much closer. Oklahoma City led 98-95 with less than six minutes left before Portland outscored it 21-10 the rest of the way. Avdija finished with 28 points, six assists and four steals, and scored 11 of them in the fourth quarter. The Thunder fell to 8-4, and Portland moved to 8-3.
Hartenstein on Avdija: ‘You have to live with certain things’
Oklahoma City played without Ajay Mitchell, who sat out with a left ankle sprain, along with Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace and several others. That left Mark Daigneault short of perimeter defenders, so he put his 7-foot center on Portland’s best driver. Hartenstein said he is comfortable in that job and pointed to the shot that hurt the most, Avdija’s step-back three with 2:53 left that put Portland up 106-100. “Sometimes you just have to live with certain things,” he said. “He made the important three at the end, but it’s kind of like what you want to live with.”
Hartenstein also had 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 11 rebounds and six assists, with six turnovers, in 33 minutes.
Daigneault on the plan: ‘He just runs you over’
Daigneault said the matchup was planned. He said the Thunder have used Hartenstein on downhill forwards such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson, and that Avdija belongs in that group. “If you have smaller guys on him, he just runs you over, and it’s free throws, it’s layups,” Daigneault said. “So we wanted to take a look at that given AJ being out, and I thought it graded out pretty well. I thought we forced him into a lot of jump shots. He didn’t shoot overly efficiently. He made a big one late, it was a huge shot, but I thought it had the desired effect and the execution of the plan was really good.”
Avdija made 9 of 20 shots, 4 of 13 from three, and all six of his free throws.
Daigneault was not upset with the result overall. “I thought we played really hard tonight. I thought we really competed. I thought our execution was pretty good. Not a masterpiece, but definitely good enough,” he said. “Credit Portland, they made more plays down the stretch. We want to go 82-0, but that’s not going to happen. These are the types of games and environments that you want to play in because you can improve through them.”
Hartenstein and Mara together
The other part of the plan was playing Hartenstein and rookie Aday Mara together for much of the game. Mara had 11 points and six rebounds, five of them on the offensive glass, in 32 minutes. Daigneault said the Thunder want to find more ways to use both centers at once. “They’re two of our best players. They’re two high-impact players, and it’s probably not best, especially in our circumstance right now, for them to split 48 minutes every night,” he said. “Now, they played a lot of minutes tonight. That’s probably not sustainable either, but it was good.”
Hartenstein said the pairing is still being worked out on the fly because the injuries have left little time to practice. “Trying to figure out how we can make me and Aday work at the same time, I think that’s going to be big for us,” he said. “We don’t have much practice, so it’s like we’re really just figuring out during the game. We’re talking through the game.” He compared it to his early games next to Holmgren. “Before the first four games, I was like, there’s no way this is going to work,” Hartenstein said. “And it became one of our best lineups.”
He also praised Alex Caruso, who spent much of the night on Damian Lillard and finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three. “AC is AC,” Hartenstein said. “I think if he played the minutes to make All-Defense, I think he would be All-Defense every year. He’s a very high-IQ guy and is just easy to play with.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s third quarter, and Camara
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, 23 of them after halftime, but missed all seven of his three-point attempts and got 13 of his points at the free-throw line. Toumani Camara drew the assignment on him in both games. Gilgeous-Alexander said the problem in the first half was his own shooting. “I don’t think it was anything necessarily that he specifically did,” he said. “I think I was just missing things that I usually make. Obviously, he’s a good defender. They’re well coached, they’ll have schemes, they’ll show me multiple bodies. … In the third quarter, I made shots that I usually make. I’ll have a great game this season, and I’ll have an awful game this season. You just gotta stick with it.”
Asked about Gilgeous-Alexander’s third quarters, Daigneault used a baseball comparison. “That’s his third and fourth at-bat,” he said. “He’s seen the same pitching throughout the course of the game, and he’s so good now at understanding how he’s going to get played and what teams are trying to do to him that he can calibrate to the game, calibrate to the defender, calibrate to the schemes.” He also praised Camara. “He’s got a tenacity on that end of the floor where he’s bringing it every play,” Daigneault said. “There’s nothing to him other than competition, so that’s the kind of guy you can really tip your hat to.”
Nori and Lillard on the Portland side
Blazers coach Micah Nori said he “didn’t like the first half at all.” He credited Camara for taking on Gilgeous-Alexander again. “Toumani, just to accept that challenge, and it’s the norm for him,” Nori said. He also said the bench, which got 19 points from Jrue Holiday on 5-of-8 shooting from three and 10 points from Robert Williams III, is where Portland is pulling away from teams while Shaedon Sharpe and others are out. “Even with the injuries, our strength is our bench,” Nori said. “And when we’re fully healthy, we’ll have almost no drop-offs.”
Lillard scored nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. He said in his on-court interview that the second game was always going to be harder. “It came down to who was gonna get stops and who was gonna execute at the end,” Lillard said. “I just wanted to be a little more assertive on both sides of the ball.”
What’s next
Both teams play Emirates NBA Cup games on Friday, Nov. 13. Portland visits Sacramento at 10 p.m. ET, which is 5 a.m. Saturday in Cairo, and Oklahoma City plays the LA Clippers at 10:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 a.m. Saturday in Cairo.
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