Depth Carries Trail Blazers to 'Ugly' Win Over Kings

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📍SACRAMENTO, Calif. — You don’t always get the luxury of having lesson-learning games end in a win.

The way the Trail Blazers talked about their 128-120 Friday night win over the Kings, you’d think the hangover from Wednesday’s electric season opener resulted in a loss to a team expected to be one of the worst in the Western Conference.

“We’ve got to respect our opponents,” Sidy Cissoko told me afterwards. “We’re early in the season, so I think that was kind of a wakeup call for us.”

Cissoko was one of several standout performances for a bench that came up big after a lethargic first half from the starters.

Micah Nori is still figuring this roster out, but he’s already shown he’s comfortable mixing and matching and going deep. And the Blazers have shown that he can trust them when he has to do that.

It’s easy to pinpoint exactly when this one shifted.

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