Career Nights for Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan Give Trail Blazers Their First Winning Streak

Portland took both ends of a back-to-back against Minnesota.

📸: Alika Jenner, Getty Images

📍 PORTLAND, Ore. — Shaedon Sharpe has been back from his shoulder injury for five games, but he hadn’t had a real Shaedon Sharpe moment until a little over five minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Trail Blazers’ second win in two nights over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jerami Grant missed a foul-line jumper and Sharpe, who was already working on a career night, came in for a thunderous putback dunk.

“Shit, I missed the shot and I saw him flying in…” Grant laughed after the game. “He’s got that, for sure.”

“That was beautiful,” Chauncey Billups said. “It was really loud. I thought it deflated them, but me watching it, it was like poetry in motion. It looked like it was in slow motion. The ball came off perfect. I can’t wait to watch it. I’m sure I’ll be seeing it all over the place tonight.”

That dunk aside, this version of Sharpe is the player the Blazers view as a cornerstone of what they’re building. For most of his first four games back from the injury, he was passive and hesitant to attack like he normally does. Maybe some of that was re-learning to trust his body coming off the shoulder injury. But outside of a couple of ill-advised pull-up three-point attempts on Wednesday, Sharpe played the way he’s supposed to play. Outplayed Anthony Edwards, even. It’s still a group effort to get that to happen all the time.

“Shae is such a teammate and he doesn’t want to step on anybody’s toes and wants to just kind of fit in,” Billups said. “And I’m telling him, ‘No, you need to go.’ I’ve got to force him. But he’ll get used to it. He loves that we depend on him to do some of those things. The more that happens, the more he’ll get used to it.”

But the dunk is what people will remember.

“I haven’t really seen Shaedon in person get up like that yet,” Donovan Clingan said. “Obviously, he was out for a little bit with the shoulder, so I haven’t seen some of the stuff. I was right under the rim looking up, and here comes Shaedon out of nowhere. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ That was crazy.”

Clingan had a big night of his own. With Robert Williams III sitting out the second half of the back-to-back (as a precaution given his injury history) and Deandre Ayton out with a finger injury, he made his second start in a row and played a career-high 31 minutes. Other career highs: 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks.

“I love defense,” Clingan said. “It brings energy to the team. That’s how you win ballgames.”

Clingan was visibly exhausted about halfway through the fourth quarter. He battled through it. He’s got to be more grateful than anyone that the Blazers, after playing five games in seven nights, now have three days off before their next game against Atlanta on Sunday. In front of his grandmother, who was seeing him play in the NBA in person for the first time, he left it all out there.

“He’s a competitor, man,” Billups said. “He’s trying to go after everything. He is actually pissed if he doesn’t block that shot or when he goes to block a shot and his man gets an offensive rebound. He’s hot. I just want him to voice that. I want him to be a little better about that. Voice it. Let your teammates know you mad. Let ‘em know why you mad. That’s his next step.”

I don’t know how many winning streaks the Blazers will have this season. They might not have many more wins for a while. After Sunday, their next five-game road trip includes Oklahoma City, Houston and Indiana. The next game they might enter as the favorite is Dec. 6 at home against Utah. These two back-to-back wins against the Timberwolves may have to tide everyone over for a bit.

But on the heels of one of the worst losses in recent memory, they responded in a big way.