The Portland Trail Blazers were blown out at home by the Oklahoma City Thunder 134-91 on Sunday night. Portland struggled to compete in any facet of the game, while the Thunder used exceptionally hot shooting to get the easy win.

Despite the Blazers having lost seven games in a row, forward Jabari Walker is willing to be patient. He says the team gets along well, but needs time to gel:

“I don’t think the reason we’re losing has to do anything with our energy,” Walker said after the loss. “As far as, like, a group, we hang out off the court, we enjoy each other’s presence. This group is really close but it’s just something about on the court that we have to figure out how to click with each other. I think that just comes with time and watching film.”

While coach Chauncey Billups says the Blazers are putting in the effort, it just isn't translating to results quite yet.

Said Billups, “I haven't sat up here one time at all this year and talked about effort for our team and, honestly, I'm not going to start tonight. I don't think we had a night where we didn't compete. I just think their shot-making really deflated us.”

Walker tended to echo those sentiments. The Blazers forward still likes a lot about the team's process. With key players such as Robert Williams III, Scoot Henderson, Malcom Brogdon, and Anfernee Simons out for various periods of time, Walker still sees the positive – even if it isn't translating to wins quite yet:

“I think we’re getting better with dealing with adversity,” Jabari Walker said postgame. “Like the guys show mental toughness even on the bench even though we were down a bunch of points, the bench was still engaged. We’re cheering, the vets were motivating, so just stuff like that.”

Injuries aside, overseeing a rebuild as Billups is with the Blazers is an exercise in focusing on the fundamentals. There likely won't be a whole lot of wins at the end of the season, and that's okay. The focus should be on reinforcing positive habits, setting a culture, and focusing on improvement from month-to-month, week-to-week, and even game-to-game.

It can be easy for young teams to slip into bad habits. Fans saw it with the ‘process'-era Philadelphia 76ers, as an obvious example. But repeated losing can wear on young teams. It takes time to learn how to win, but how can a team learn to win without winning? That's the challenge that Billups is embracing this season.

For Walker, the team's struggles and especially the Blazers losing Robert Willimas III for the season has opened up minutes for the second-year forward.

On the season, Walker has seen his minutes per game jump from 11 to 16 minutes per night for the Blazers. He's putting up seven points and four rebounds in that time. But more importantly, Walker is building chemistry with his young teammates. It's not the sort of thing that will be obvious right now but will pay dividends down the line – whether that's later this season or two years from now once the team is more seasoned and has hopefully added another key piece or two through the NBA Draft.

Up next – the Blazers visit Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night in an In-Season Tournament game.