ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Portland Trail Blazers (51-27) paid a visit to Oakland tonight to face the Golden State Warriors (63-15), losers of two straight games. The Blazers were without Wesley Matthews (left Achilles tendon) and Dorell Wright (left hand fracture), while the Warriors played without Leandro Barbosa (sore right Achilles) and Ognjen Kuzmic (on D-League assignment).
1ST QUARTER: Steph Ties His Own Three-Pointer Record
The Warriors had Oracle roaring early. On the second possession of the game for the Dubs, Andrew Bogut left a drop pass for Klay Thompson as he wheeled around Bogut on the Triangle-ish action. Thompson then immediately sent a lob to the rolling Bogut for a one-handed righty slam.
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After Robin Lopez got a tap-in of a missed putback by LaMarcus Aldridge, Stephen Curry took the made-basket inbound, dribbled past halfcourt, and pulled up from the top of the arc, drilling the triple and heating up the Oracle oven.
Then Lopez missed a flat-footed jumper from the free throw line, Draymond Green got the board, dribbled up to lead the early transition, and handed off to Curry from the left elbow, who turned and drained another trey.
The momentum continued for Golden State, as Curry dribbled down the left side of the lane, passed it to Harrison Barnes and, with the Portland defense shifted over, Barnes took a couple of strong dribbles, found a seam into the paint and tomahawked it through.
Even Bogut participated in the offensive mini-onslaught, as he caught the ball in the mid-left block, looked around for someone to pass to and, when no one was available, put the ball on the deck for a dribble or two and flipped up a lefty quasi-hook with Lopez in the way, good for two.
After Aldridge powered a bucket over Green’s chest, Steph set an up-cut pick on Klay’s man and Draymond delivered a backdoor pass for a Thompson layup. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts called timeout and the Warriors took a 14-7 lead early on with 7:44 to go in the first frame.
Out of the timeout, the Blazers kept pace and trimmed their deficit to the Warriors, as Aldridge made a couple of turnaround jumpers, the second of which drew an and-one foul on Green. Curry made another trey, over a switched Aldridge, but Arron Afflalo knocked down a long two as Thompson got picked to free Afflalo up and then a left corner triple once again facilitated by Lopez, who got an offensive rebound of a missed three-pointer by Aldridge.
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With 4:05 to go, Portland cut the lead to 21-19 after Aldridge’s and-one free throw.
Green kept the pace up, even as he let a righty sling pass by Curry pass by him for a turnover, Draymond raced back and tapped a rebound of a short-stuck-under-rim layup on the break by Afflalo went awry. On the way back, Justin Holiday got a nice Euro-step to bank in, a move that Oracle appreciated.
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Both teams traded buckets. Andre Iguodala checked in and airballed a left-corner trey, then badly missed a right elbow jumper. Chris Kaman got a layup as Aldridge charged into Marreese Speights with no whistle, then Kaman drilled a jumper from the left elbow as Speights flew by and got called for the touch foul, and-one.
Kaman’s free throw tied the game at 27-27 with 29.6 seconds to play, but Curry took an on-ball pick from Green from a side-out with 6.1 seconds remaining and calmy buried the triple to end the quarter.
Golden State took a 30-27 lead into the second frame as Curry’s 4th trey of the night tied him with his own season record of 272 set last year. He had 14 points on 4-for-8 from downtown, while Green added 5 rebounds. Aldridge led the Blazers with 8 points.
2ND QUARTER:
The Warriors bench unit started the second quarter with Shaun Livingston, Holiday, Iguodala, Speights, and David Lee, then promptly handed over the lead to the Blazers.
Even as Speights tapped an offensive rebound to himself for an inside bucket against Kaman, the fact that the play was initiated by one-on-one moves from Iguodala, to a right corner trey attempt that might have been rushed by Holiday, seems to portend struggles to follow.
Thompson continued his struggles from the field, getting a dribble-and-pop jumper blocked by the close-out of CJ McCollum. That resulted in a dish by Damian Lillard to a cutting Meyers Leonard for a dunk.
After a righty layup by Lee went off rim, McCollum drained a trey from the right corner, Lee missed again, this time from the left side, and Lillard blew by Livingston on the left side for a layup, prompting Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to call timeout as the Blazers took a 42-34 lead with 7:05 to play in the half.
But Lillard drilled a trey after take one dribble from a side out of bounds, Nicolas Batum dropped a jumper after a hand-off from Lopez, and Leonard rebounded a fade-away trey from McCollum from the right corner, to dish to Lillard, who once again took one dribble from the far left side and netted a long two.
Just like that, Portland took a 49-36 lead with 5:26 left.
Things got a bit dicey after Thompson got “butter fingers” and his dribble sailed all the way to the backboard, kind of embarrassingly. Klay even stopped by the scorer’s table momentarily to get some talcum for his hands, but it didn’t work, at least not immediately, as he went down the lane and got his layup easily blocked by Lopez.
Green corralled the rebound, but Thompson then missed badly, short-rimming a corner three from the right side. But on the ensuing change of possession, Bogut disrupted a Lillard layup, and Curry used a high pick by Green to get a pivot-and-launch three-pointer to drop.
Golden State then ran a set play that freed up Steph from the left elbow and Barnes delivered the swing pass. Stotts called timeout as his previous 13-point lead evaporated to just 7, 49-42, with 3:42 to go.
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Klay got things back on track, as well as the Warriors as a whole. After Barnes went down the lane in traffic and made an impressive lefty banker, Thompson swatted a Lillard shot attempt in the paint, then took the ball up court, dribbled back to the far left wing, and drained the pull-up trey.
Then Aldridge missed a layup, Barnes rebounded and outlet the ball to Klay, who went right-to-left into the lane in transition for a banker, plus the harm. Thompson’s free throw brought Golden State all the way back to a 50-52 deficit with 1:42 remaining.
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Lillard answered back with a left-to-right reverse layup with the high pick supplied by Aldridge, but Thompson posted up Damian on the next possession in the high left block, took a dribble to the baseline, made a fake, drew the body from Lillard, and swished the pretty baseline jumper for another and-one.
Bogut then defended Aldridge and took some contact, falling down backwards, but Aldridge airballed the wide-open jumper. Klay went with an up-and-under layup attempt, but hit the rim and the ball went off a Blazer. It was Warriors' ball, baseline out-of-bounds, with Curry inbounding.
Familiar to DubNation, Barnes shed his man thanks to a pick at the elbow from Thompson, and got an easy double-clutch layup banker, giving the Dubs a 55-54 lead.
As #Roaracle chanted, "Defense!", Lillard got his spin in the lane blocked by the combination of Klay and Draymond converging, and Steph took the dribble down the court, paused at the deep left wing, enough for Kaman to bite. Curry then dribbled past him, past the help of McCollum from the corner, and a nice lefty banker dropped as Aldridge arrive too late, all with 4.3 ticks left on the clock.
That gave the Warriors a 57-54 lead heading into halftime. Curry had 22 first-half points on 8-for-12 field, 6-for-10 downtown, plus 4 assists, as Thompson added 13 on 5-for-11 shooting. Green had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, while Barnes added 8 points, 4 rebounds. The bench combined for just 6 points, 4 from Speights and 2 from Holiday.
Lillard led the Blazers with 12 points on 5-for-12 field, while Aldridge added 11. Leonard had 6 boards off the bench.
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