ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Two nights after defeating the Utah Jazz, the Golden State Warriors (57-6) played host to Damian Lillard, who scored 51 points the last time against the Warriors, and his Portland Trail Blazers (34-31).
The Warriors were without Festus Ezeli (knee surgery rehab). The Trail Blazers had no listed injuries.
1st Quarter – Chef-fortless
Klay Thompson got off to a hot start, hitting three of his first four attempts from beyond the arc, although he did miss two layup attempts.
Damian Lillard hit two of his first three to keep things close, but after Mason Plumlee hit one of two from the line upon drawing Draymond Green’s first foul, Andrew Bogut set a possibly moving screen to free up Thompson yet again, and Klay swished it.
Portland head coach Terry Stotts went bonkers with the non-call and called a timeout with 5:59 remaining as Golden State took a 16-9 lead.
After the timeout, Curry put on his chef hat and took over, getting a left wing three assisted by Green, one from the corner as Andre Iguodala had an open opportunity but smartly re-fed Steph while supplying a pick in the process…
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…as well as this step-back as he lost the ball, over Lillard:
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Curry got another one over Ed Davis from the right arc as Draymond gave a drag screen, a catch-and-spin scoop past Meyers Leonard trying to help, one more triple with no Warriors rebounding.
Steph added a double-behind-the-back crossover against Lillard from the deep wing to go high off backboard over Leonard:
Steph crosses up Damian Lillard. Warriors up 40-27 after 1, and Chef Curry's already got 18 points pic.twitter.com/dVVDamhNMd
— KNBR (@KNBR) March 12, 2016
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Curry ended the quarter with 18 points on 7-for-12 field, 4-for-7 downtown, while Klay added 12 points while going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.
There could have been more fireworks on both sides, as Steph missed an open trey thanks to a punishing drag screen on Lillard, and missed a pull-up under a minute against Davis, who was practically at his mercy. The Blazers also got an alley-oop from a side-out at the buzzer, but there was only 0.2 seconds remaining and the referees reviewed the play and waved it off.
2nd Quarter – Blazin’ The Blazers
The bench unit kept things rolling as Iguodala hit two threes in a row, Shaun Livingston got an “and-one” on a jumper fouled by C.J. McCollum, and even Anderson Varejao got into the action, getting an inside bunny to drop after a nice upfake.
With 8:41 to play, Stotts called timeout as Varejao’s bucket put the Warriors up, 55-38.
Out of the timeout, Iguodala made an impressive juke of Gerald Henderson, an “ankle-breaker”…
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…that put a Warriors fan in disbelief…
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…but Iguodala missed the pull-up three from the left wing. Still, Harrison Barnes got the offensive rebound, Varejao ended up giving Thompson a nice lead pass, but Klay missed the open jumper.
Barnes again got the board and was fouled, going to the line with 7:12 still left on the clock as the Blazers were already in the penalty. Barnes seemed to break out of his free throw mini-slump, swishing the first, but clanked the second.
Varejao’s imprint continued as he retreated beautifully on a right baseline attack by Moe Harkless, duping Harkless into thinking there would be contact at the rim and forcing a miss, then running the floor and getting the “tic-tac-toe” bucket as Livingston found Iguodala, who lasered the assist to Anderson down low…
#Teamwork on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/a4kNNJtcgO
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) March 12, 2016
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…to which Green had an interesting celebration on the bench:
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Then, McCollum missed a right baseline fade over Thompson, and Klay played pick-and-roll on the left wing with Varejao, slipping open for a dribble-and-pop swish, giving the Warriors a 61-40 lead as Stotts burned a twenty-second timeout.
Curry checked back in, Mason Plumlee got an and-one, but Steph made a gorgeous upfake on a three, Plumlee not surprisingly bit, and Curry got an easy lay-in.
Both teams continued to trade baskets as Thompson made a three from the left arc on a nice misdirection dribble then sling pass by Draymond, answered by a Lillard double-clutch banker against Klay.
After Green’s three from the top went in and out, Henderson drilled a triple and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took no chancs, taking a twenty-second timeout to cool down the Blazers.
Curry didn’t finish the quarter all that cleanly, having a top of the arc three barely graze the rim, then committing a bad pass turnover in stagnant traffic on the left side, but Bogut played “tic-tac-toe” with Draymond to find Brandon Rush a swish from the left wing, then Thompson drained another triple as Steph got a nice lead pass from Bogut, went behind-the-back back to Bogut, who froze a bit wide open at the free throw line, then as Oracle beckoned him to shoot, passed the ball over to Klay for the catch-and-shoot.
Plumlee putback a missed layup by Lillard, then after Green missed a three from the corner that went out of bounds off the Blazers, Curry passed the ball in from the baseline to Bogut, who handed it back to Steph for the sweet left-wing jumper that swished through with 0.6 seconds left, giving Golden State a commanding 81-61 lead at the half.
Per the TV broadcast, Warriors PR reported it was the 14th time this season the Warriors had scored more than 70 points in the quarter. Golden State also went an astounding 14-for-25 from beyond the arc, just 8 shy of the NBA record for one game. They also shot 27-for-46 (58.7%) overall from the field.
Curry and Thompson both had 23 points apiece, while Steph, Bogut, and Green all had 4 assists each.
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