OKLAHOMA CITY -- The legend of Jusuf Nurkic grew even larger on Tuesday night as the Portland Trail Blazers' center delivered in the clutch of a 126-121 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

As he twisted into the lane for a scooping, half-hook shot in traffic, to give the Blazers a four-point lead with just over 30 seconds left, he was inking the latest chapter in a story not yet eight games old.

The lore of the bruising center with a soft touch sent to rescue the Blazers' season has already outgrown Nurkic's 7-foot, nearly 300-pound frame. It even has a clinical diagnosis: Nurkic Fever.

Behind the scenes, though, the Blazers players and coaches have diligently worked to get their newest addition up to speed. They know they need him. They know he has changed the team's identity and injected life into a season largely void of it. They also know he needs some help.

***

In Nurkic's Blazers debut at Utah prior to the All-Star break, he was out of shape, playing on fumes with a very loose grasp on the Blazers playbook. Less than three weeks later, he's capable of playing 30 minutes a night and his knowledge of Terry Stotts' offensive system includes around 15 variations of the team's basic sets.

"In our motion set you can pass to the elbow, pass to the corner, pass to the weakside, dribble to the corner, dribble to the middle," Stotts says. "You have five options depending on where the ball goes. So, we only taught him the first two. And (on Tuesday morning) we added another one or two."

Following morning shootaround on Tuesday, Nurkic continued his crash course in the playbook, running through 5-on-0 sets with Jake Layman, Noah Vonleh, Pat Connaughton and Blazers assistant coach Jim Moran. Stotts and Blazers captain Damian Lillard sat on the sidelines, watching closely as assistant coach Nate Tibbetts barked out the set and the five guys on the court jogged through each play.

"Make sure he knows Thumb Quick 2 ... and Thumb Quick 2 reverse," Lillard told Tibbetts after watching a few plays.

At one point, Stotts stopped the drill to explain that Nurkic went the wrong way. In that particular set he was supposed to set a screen away from the ball not on it.

Once the playbook work was done, Nurkic went to the opposite end of the floor to get shots up with assistant coach John McCullough; mid-range attempts, three-pointers and free throws. When the final free throw took too long, Stotts warned that Nurkic was going to miss the team bus back to the hotel.

"I still got money for Uber," Nurkic said, before adding. "I love gym, coach."

***

In the locker room after the Blazers beat Oklahoma City, Lillard called across the room, beckoning Nurkic to come check out a video on his phone. It was a clip of Nurkic's final field goal, the spinning right-handed scoop that he floated in over Thunder forward Taj Gibson.

It was the biggest shot of the game. And easily the most important play of Nurkic's brief Blazers career, one that perfectly illustrates his immense skill and his willingness to listen and learn from his new coworkers.

"I was talking to Dame the whole time" Nurkic said. "He talked to me about what I should do and I agree. The second half and the first half were totally different for me."

Nurkic struggled mightily in the first half in Oklahoma City and then picked up two quick fouls in the first minute of the third quarter, forcing him to sit until the 8:28 mark of the fourth. Sensing his teammate was being impatient and predictable in his shots in the lane, Lillard offered some advice.

"I told him, 'When you catch it in the middle, you're so big, take your time," Lillard said. "'Catch it, take a dribble, feel the defender and then get a good shot off two feet and on balance because you're so good, so big they won't be able to stop it.'"

Nurkic heeded the sage advice. With under a minute to go, he found himself on the block matched up on a switch with Russell Westbrook. Nurkic overpowered the Thunder's star point guard in the post and scored off the glass to put the Blazers up 118-116 with 55 seconds left.

On Portland's next possession, Nurkic set a screen for Lillard and then rolled toward the paint, catching the ball near the foul line before spinning and flipping a shot over his left shoulder just out of reach of Gibson. It was the exact scenario Lillard had gone over earlier in the game. The postgame video review was more praise and confirmation that what Lillard had told him was executed perfectly.

Nurkic finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists, securing a crucial defensive rebound with under 10 seconds to play and adding two free throws to help ice the game. His clutch performance overshadowed a masterful team effort by the Blazers, in which seven players scored in double figures as their balanced attack thwarted a 58-point tour de force from Westbrook.

"There's no question he's had an impact," Stotts said of Nurkic. "I don't want to undersell that. But I do think everybody is playing well off of him. But I think he has infused some energy and a different look. His style of play is obviously different than Mason (Plumlee). The way he's been able to integrate with our team on both ends of the court has made a huge difference."

On the surface, the legend of Nurkic is about a twirling 7-footer, dropping in clutch baskets, dishing out crafty assists and snaring beastly rebounds. The real story comes from the practices and in the locker room where his emergence highlights a team working to make sure he's ready and his willingness to listen and learn.

"The guys believe in me," Nurkic said. "They see me in practice and they know what I can do. And I think just try to figure (it) out and kinda be free on the court."

-- Mike Richman

mrichman@oregonian.com

@mikegrich