Yang Hansen Shines as Trail Blazers Demolish Suns in Opener
The Portland Trail Blazers opened their NBA season with a statement, dismantling the Phoenix Suns 124-83 at home, and for Chinese basketball fans the most intriguing subplot came in the final twelve minutes. Second-year center Yang Hansen, the young big man from China, entered in the fourth quarter and played the entire period, finishing with five points, two rebounds and two turnovers in about twelve minutes of action.
Yang shot 4-for-2 from the field, including one of two from three-point range, and showed the kind of mobility that has made him a curiosity around the league. The numbers were modest, but the minutes were meaningful: a full quarter of garbage time is still a full quarter of NBA basketball, and it gave the 20-something center extended run in front of a home crowd that has been curious about him since he arrived.
The game itself was never close. Portland raced to a 43-12 lead after the first quarter, a margin that effectively ended the contest before it began. By halftime the Blazers led 72-39, and the second half was little more than a formality. Damian Lillard paced Portland with 25 points, three rebounds and six assists, while Deni Avdija added 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Phoenix had almost nothing go right. Devin Booker finished with 23 points on a night when his team was outscored by 41, and Dillon Brooks added 10 points and four rebounds. The Suns’ offense stalled early and never recovered, and the defensive effort that might have kept them in the game never materialized.
For Yang, the performance fits a familiar pattern for young international players: flashes of skill, some understandable rust, and a coaching staff still working out how much responsibility to hand him. His one made three-pointer showed the range that made him a prospect, while the two turnovers are the kind of mistake that comes with adjusting to the speed of the NBA.
The broader context matters for readers outside China. Yang is part of a small but growing wave of Chinese players trying to establish themselves in the world’s best league, and every appearance draws intense attention back home. Chinese outlets covered his twelve minutes as closely as the result itself, a reminder that for a huge audience, his development is the story.
Portland’s win gives the franchise a confident start as it builds around a young core, and blowouts like this one are useful for getting minutes to players who might not otherwise see the floor. Whether Yang can turn those fourth-quarter minutes into a real rotation role will depend on how he performs when the games are closer and the stakes higher.
For now, the takeaway is simple: the Trail Blazers are 1-0, Lillard looks sharp, and Yang Hansen got his first meaningful run of the new season. For Chinese fans following his career, that is enough to keep watching.