the Golden State Warriors provided Gary Payton II with his championship ring before the match, then gave the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers a button sandwich shortly after. In a game filled with turbulent ups and downs, Portland shook off an extremely slow start and gave themselves a legitimate chance to win, before running out of gas in the streak in a 118-112 loss.
Despite a 34-point game from Damian Lillard and strong offensive support from Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant, the Blazers went absolutely icy at both ends of the floor in the final frame, pushing them to an 18-17 record and in the no. 8 seeds in the Western Conference. Here are some thoughts on tonight’s defeat.
A racing game:
Anyone watching tonight’s game could tell the Trail Blazers were on a rollercoaster ride with inconsistency to the highest degree. But, to put some numbers, in this game alone, they: (1) had their best-scoring second quarter, going 40 in the third quarter, (2) followed that up with their second-the lowest quarterback, with 16 in the fourth, (3) gave up their best first quarter of the season with the Warriors’ 41-point onslaught, then (4) turned an 18-point deficit into an 11-point lead in the second halftime … all in the same game, and always lost.
As the saying goes, basketball is a racing game. The team that finishes with the final is often the one that turns out to be victorious. If NBA games ended at 40 minutes, down from 48, the Blazers would likely emerge victorious; if the games stretched to 50 minutes, maybe they would even have one more rally. Unfortunately, when the going got tough, Portland reverted to their worst tendencies – isolation ball and uninspiring transition defense – and that strategy proved unsuccessful against the Warriors, who worked as a team.
When Drew Eubanks blocked Jonathan Kuminga’s layup with 4:49 left in the fourth, the Blazers sported an eight-point advantage and, according to ESPN, a 94.5 percent chance of winning. Unfortunately, a 41-point game from Jordan Poole and a 31-point reinforcement from Klay Thompson rewrote history we know all too well: a Warriors run, then a Warriors win.
This is not your average return:
You could never accuse Damian Lillard of lacking motivation for any game. However, looking at it year after year, it’s clear that specific matches – Lakers games, battles against similar high-level point guards, and games against Golden State, who his highest scoring average comes up against — usually pack a little more punch.
The end result wasn’t a net positive in tonight’s game, and Lillard struggled to break free against a hard-fought defense in the Blazers’ fourth-quarter slump. But that shouldn’t completely undermine how brilliant he was in building up his game after Anfernee Simons’ frightening crash sent him to the locker room early in the third.
Superstars can often feel the need to pick up the slack, and in that regard, Lillard was in limo, jet, switch and, most importantly, lead shipping. Portland didn’t get their first lead until 10:15 of the third and, thanks to their orchestrating team ball, they positioned themselves with a chance to win.
Adding to tonight’s game, Lillard is now averaging 31.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists on 46-38-93 save percentage in his last five trips against Golden State. In the grand scheme, and without a win, that won’t mean much, but it’s remarkable for the franchise star.
Press the Snooze button:
One of the teams in tonight’s game was well rested and hadn’t played since Monday.
The other? It was their third game in four nights, all accompanied by their best player on the sidelines. You wouldn’t know it watching tonight, but the Warriors are the latter of the two.
This game was ripe for Portland to benefit from an understaffed roster, even without Jusuf Nurkic in the fold. Instead, they told us the game started at 7:00 p.m. PT; the Blazers didn’t start playing professional basketball until around the 8 hours.
Before I can even say the words, “Let’s Go Blazers” the warriors were so far away that they wouldn’t even have heard you. In a way only they can, Golden State held on to a 33-15 first quarter lead. Portland finally shook off the cobwebs, finishing with a 25-point opening frame… which wouldn’t have been a problem except Thompson and Poole combined for 29 points and seven 3-pointers.
Golden State just played with more energy, in short. It was also close to a rendition of “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns as you might find tonight. They led Draymond Green in the playmaker role, distributing assists on split cut actions, chasing smaller guards, backdoor cuts and 3-point transition, and ultimately, as a result, the Warriors won the highly anticipated guard duel and ultimately tonight’s game.
Other random notes:
- The Warriors opened up the 18-point lead, as shown, in the first quarter. But they didn’t shoot their first free throws until 7:18 into the second quarter. The first 16 minutes were just full buckets for them.
- It was interesting to note that Jerami Grant – who played a solid game – wasn’t guarding either Poole or Thompson as much as one would expect in that first quarter. He often guards the opposition’s best perimeter player, even if it’s a guard. Tonight they mixed things up a bit.
- Warriors commentators seemed a little unhappy with some of Damian Lillard’s free throw attempts tonight, even saying that, “If his name was Fred Lillard, he wouldn’t have gotten that call.” Somewhere there’s a Mr. Fred Lillard watching tonight’s game wondering what he did to deserve this.
- The Blazers ran an eight-man rotation amid injuries, with Lillard, Hart and Simons all crossing the 40-plus-minute mark. These kinds of minutes are only enjoyable when accompanied by wins.
Following:
If you haven’t already, take a look. Snapshot recap by Dave Deckard of tonight’s game.
The Blazers open the 2023 calendar year with a home tilt against the Detroit Pistonslive Monday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. PT.
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