MODA CENTER, PORTLAND, OR — The Golden State Warriors had their first back-to-back of the season, traveling to face the Portland Trail Blazers the night after disposing the Los Angeles Lakers at Oracle Arena.
FIRST QUARTER
The Blazers started out outrebounding the Warriors on the offensive glass, 4-0, although Golden State tallied 4 blocked shots.
The Warriors got out to an early 13-7 lead with their offense in rhythm, trying to run the floor early and executing plays on offense.
On one play with Andrew Bogut out high with the ball, Stephen Curry went to set a pick on the low block. With the Blazers shifted to defend the pass to the man Curry was setting the pick for, Curry cut to the hoop and Bogut delivered a surgical bounce pass for the pretty layup.
But the rest of the quarter was highlighted by — who else? — Klay Thompson.
Thompson was absorbing contact and driving to the cup, getting to the line. When Steve Blake checked in for the Blazers, backing up Wes Matthews, Thompson posted Blake up, bumping and grinding until he had punished Blake enough to attack the rim for a layup.
Locked and loaded with Blake in his crosshairs, Thompson would bury a pivot-and-shoot three-pointer after Bogut corralled an offensive board, even with Blake anticipating the shot and draped all over Thompson.
Thompson played all but the final 40.1 seconds of the quarter as the Warriors built an early lead, 30-22, heading into the second quarter. Klay tallied 15 points on 6-for-12 from the field. Curry added 8 points, and Bogut 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
Collectively, Golden State was shooting 9-for-18 from the field while the Blazers were at 25.9% (7-for-27). LaMarcus Aldridge had a quiet 7 points on 1-for-6 shooting, although he did force Draymond Green into two personal fouls.
SECOND QUARTER
The Warriors had a couple of nice highlights in the second frame, but the Blazers were buoyed by Matthews, who scored 9 points in the quarter.
After Thomas Robinson got stopped at the rim by Festus Ezeli, Andre Iguodala finished the fast break with an emphatic slam dunk, and the Warriors led, 38-26 with 9:39 remaining in the half.
Matthews then led the Blazers charge that got Portland to within 38-37. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr had called timeout just a few minutes elapsed earlier after a strong Matthews layup, but after turnovers by Harrison Barnes, Iguodala, and Thompson, decided not to call another one, letting the Warriors figure it out.
Kerr then drew up a baseline inbound play that found Bogut and Curry wheeling around, with Bogut the eventual recipient of an alley oop delivered by an in-motion Curry.
On the lowlight side of the coin, Green had a funny stumbling-bumbling chase of a loose ball and Marreese Speights missed an offensive assignment that found Kerr vigorously pointing to the floor where Speights should have been. Curry still got an open shot on the play, but missed it, and the Warriors were somewhat out of sync.
With 40 seconds to go in the quarter, Curry drove and committed an all-too-familiar turnover trying to dish away at the last moment. It was the Warriors’ 9th turnover.
The Warriors still managed to hold the Blazers to just 36% shooting in the first half and led 50-47. Thompson had 20 points on 7-for-13 from the field and Curry added 11 points, 4 assists. Matthews led the Blazers with 13.
THIRD QUARTER
In the third quarter, it looked like the back-to-back had finally caught up to Golden State. There was an airball by Green, another airball from downtown by Curry. The Warriors would have trouble finding the bottom of the net the rest of the period.
Meanwhile, the Blazers started to find their rhythm, as Damian Lillard finally drilled a three and the tied the game for the Blazers, 64-64, with 3:00 to go in the quarter.
Aldridge was also heating up, swishing beautiful fadeaway after beautiful fadeaway, while the Warriors saw their shots bounce in-and-out and off rim.
One of the few bright spots was Ezeli getting a clutch baby hook to tie the game at 68-68 late in the quarter when nothing else was clicking.
By the time the buzzer sounded this quarter, Golden State had shot just 36.6%, totaling only 38 points in both the second and third quarters combined.
Curry had 17 points, Thompson 20. Aldridge was up to 16 points and 11 rebounds.
FOURTH QUARTER
The fourth quarter started out with a scoring showdown between Leandro Barbosa and Matthews. A Matthews shot would get trumped by a Barbosa three-pointer. Barbosa was also attacking the rim and getting to the line.
He kept the Warriors in the game.
Shaun Livingston played 15 minutes and got some significant burn in the final frame, as Kerr decided to rest Curry and Thompson a bit extra coming into the back-to-back.
But Livingston’s rust showed as he couldn’t keep up with Lillard’s missed shots, as Lillard collected his own misses and ended with a layup after two offensive rebounds.
Then Matthews had an “Iron Man” steal on Livingston trying to dance around Bogut’s high screen. Livingston wanted the foul but that was going to happen.
With 5:38 to go, Kerr finally brought Curry and Thompson back in, but had to burn a timeout to do it.
After a Blake steal on Thompson trying to work him on the pinch post was sandwiched by Aldridge jumpers, Klay got his revenge by blowing by Blake with the left-hand and slamming home the dunk with the rattle of rim clanging through the arena.
But Thompson would miss on a key play later. With 57 seconds to go, Curry attacked the right side of the paint and found Klay wide open in the opposite left corner, but Thompson missed the wide-open three. The Warriors were down 90-88 after the miss.
After Aldridge missed a long two from the corner, Iguodala attacked on the fast break and got fouled, but missed the second shot. The Warriors were down one with 25 seconds to play.
On the side out, Matthews got the ball, the Warriors with their small lineup of Livingston, Barnes, Thompson, Curry, and Green, didn’t foul. Matthews was caught on the side and pumped the ball to avoid the steal, with no Blazers helping out. The ball eventually squeaked out and a diving Barnes couldn’t retrieve it from the baseline.
However, the replay gave the ball to the Warriors with under ten seconds to play.
On the ensuing possession, Thompson took the ball from the inbounds on the left side and immediately drove hard right, with a running swish. The Warriors were up 91-90 with 8.7 to go.
The Blazers used their last timeout, once again had trouble getting it in, and Green used his 7’1.25″ wingspan to knock a pass to Aldridge to a teammate. Curry got the ball and tried to dribble it out, but was fouled. He made both free throws and, down 3 with no timeouts, Aldridge tried to baseball pass it to a teammate at halfcourt, but Curry intercepted it.
With Curry sealing the last two free throws, the Warriors escaped with a 95-90 win.
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