Prior to Friday night the Portland Trail Blazers hadn’t suffered a single double-digit loss in the entire 2025-26 season. That ended abruptly and decisively in Houston as Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets downed Portland 140-116. The game featured many of the hallmarks of Portland play: big runs, huge dunks, fast and easy scoring. But the Rockets showed the Blazers that anything Portland could do, Houston could do better. And then some. In the end, it wasn’t even close as the Rockets sent the Blazers to their 6th defeat of the season in 12 games.

Here are some of the trends that typified the game.

Fast and Faster

The Blazers came out ready to push the pace, flying down the court, penetrating to the middle, and either scoring or kicking out for threes. Those threes fell early too, lea

See Full Page