Warriors rain on Lillard’s parade, upend Trail Blazers, 123-105
By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT PhilBoxing.com Wed, 01 Mar 2023
Chase Center, San Francisco
Draymond Green picked up where he left off after being away for 2 games due to a sore-knee posting 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists, then almost went back to the disabled list after smashing his left wrist after colliding with Portland’s Drew Eubanks.
Luckily, Green was able to come back after 4 minutes in the locker room and helped the Warriors come out of a 23 point hole then beat the Trail Blazers by 18 points.
His objective- rally the defense to contain the piping-hot Damian Lillard who recently posted a career-best 71-point obra maestra against the Houston Rockets last Sunday night, while sniping 13 3-pointers- one shy of Thompson’s NBA record.
It was mission accomplished as Lillard hit foul trouble with 4 infractions in the 3rd quarter and was limited to 25 points and 7 assists.
Jordan Poole did a stellar job filling in for the absent Steph Curry (recovering from knee injury) and Andrew Wiggins, as he scored 29 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists.
Klay was almost vintage Thompson and managed to splash 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting and a so-so 3-of-7 in three-pointers, a far cry from his February average of 5.6 threes per game.
Donte DiVincenzo showed his mettle with a workmanlike 21 points, 4 grabs, and 3 dishes.
Jonathan Kuminga was a beast with his 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting featuring 2 spectacular one-handed dunks in the 3rd and 4th quarter to close the show.
As a team, Golden State made 49-of-92 baskets (53.8% FG), sank 12-of-30 treys (40% 3-PT), controlled both boards posting more rebounds (46 to 33), dished more assists (34 to 26), scored more points off turnovers (22 to 22) despite being more careless with more turnovers (18 to 13), posted more points in the paint (66 to 40), and led by as much as 19 points.
At halftime, the Warriors were down 17 points with the surging Blazers making every other play and forcing turnovers.
Quite a few basketball fans, experts and pundits have already written off the Warriors, but much like the state’s mascot- California Golden Bear- the Warriors inevitably came out of hibernation and erased a 23-point deficit with their sizzling 39-point third quarter, capped by Thompson's 3-pointer with 1:46 in the third that pushed the Warriors ahead for good.
En route to their 18-point victory, Golden State has now won their fourth straight at home and 8-of-9 at Chase Center; of note, the Warriors have catapulted to 5th place in the bunched-up and competitive Western Conference.
By contrast, Portland made 37-of-86 baskets (44% FG), sniped 12-of-39 treys (30.8% 3-PT), made more free throws (19 to 13 points) and was more accurate on the foul line (86.4% to 82.3%), had more steals (8 to 5 burglaries), blocked more shots (4 to 2), and led by as much as 23 points until Klay Thompson sank a 3-pointer with 1:45 left in the third quarter to push the Warriors ahead 79-78 for the first time and never looked back.
Tonight was both team’s first game since Portland re-traded Gary Payton II back to the Warriors ahead of the trade deadline in a deal fraught with controversy as Golden State complained about how much information the Trail Blazers knew and withheld regarding the guard's health - a continuing saga due to a core muscle injury that was operated on and currently still being rehabilitated.
At the post game presser, Warriors Coach Steve Kerr emphasized that every game from here on end should be play-off material.
Said Coach Kerr on the Warriors climbing out of a 23-point hole:
“It was good to close the half and make it a little more of a manageable deficit, but I just felt like the intensity picked up in the second half. The defense was much better. We held him to I think 40 points in the second half. They were amazing early on. They were hitting everything and we were a little scattered. We kind of had a different game plan tonight than normal and we're still putting some things together a little bit out there during the first quarter. I thought we did a much better job of executing defensively in the second half.“
Before the game, Damian Lillard was seen repping dumbbells for his warm-ups, something most athletes rarely do due to the unfounded fear of slowing down the fast-twitch muscle fibers.
As for their defense against Damian Lillard, Coach Kerr added,
“Well, we know all too well what Dame can do when he gets rolling. So that was the plan from the beginning. Let's try to take him out and the biggest thing was not fouling him.”
Upcoming:
Golden State Warriors (32-30): Host LA Clippers (33-31) on Thursday night, March 2, 2023.
Portland Trail Blazers (29-32): Host New Orleans Pelicans (30-32) on Wednesday night, March 2, 2023.
Note of Appreciation:
The photos, statistics and video link in this article are courtesy of the NBA and brought to you by PhilBoxing.com.
