One of the unspoken benefits of the Golden State Warriors' historic season has been that their low number of losses allows them to remember each one vividly, and to use revenge when called upon. Portland handed Golden State its worst loss of the season, and coming into Friday night's game, revenge was definitely on the mind.
After losing 137-105 in their last go-around, the Warriors dominated the Trail Blazers from start to finish for the 128-112 win. The victory moves the Warriors to 58-6 and extends their home winning streak to 47 games. Portland, who is now 5-5 over its last 10 games, drops to 34-32 for the sixth seed in the Western Conference.
"They gave us a good beating last time up there in Portland," Stephen Curry said. "It was important to us to protect our court and to get off to a quick start."
Battle In The Backcourt
The matchup of the night came from the starting guard combos of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum against The Splash Brothers: Curry and Klay Thompson. It didn't take long to figure out that Curry and Thompson would own the matchup.
Curry finished with 34 points on 7-14 shooting from beyond the arc. He came out of the gates and led the Warriors to a 40-27 lead after the first quarter, in which he recorded 18 points and drained four threes in the opening frame. Curry opened the second half with back-to-back threes and scored 11 points in the third quarter with 3-6 shooting from deep.
(Video Credit: Aqupas)
Thompson was not far behind, scoring 37 points and sinking 8-11 three balls. Thompson scored 12 of the Warriors 16 opening points, all from deep. He recorded his 200th three of the season and scored 12 points in the first quarter. He came back with 11 in the second to give him 23 at halftime on 7-9 three-point shooting. The Warriors took an 81-61 lead into halftime, marking the first time the team had registered an 80-point half of basketball.
Lillard, who scored 51 points in his last game against the Warriors, continued to see shooting woes at Oracle Arena. Lillard finished with 17 points and made just five of 19 shots, giving him a 39 percent field goals-made rate in his hometown of Oakland since he entered the league.
"We wanted to make him work, whether it was me or Clay or whoever," Curry said. "He's a great talent and he's going to make shots. But our main goal was to make it as hard as we could on him."
In the 2nd half, the Trail Blazers' star backcourt fared a little, but not much, better. McCollum led Portland with 18 points on 3-6 three-point shooting and 6-15 from the field overall.
For Curry, it is his 31st game of the season with at least 30 points scored. In addition, Curry has allowed opposing point guards to score 30 points just five times this season. Lillard has two of those five 30-point games, scoring 40 in their first meeting and going over the half-century mark in the second.
Three-Point Record Setting Night
Both the Warriors and Trail Blazers were effective with the deep ball. It allowed Golden State to jump out to a large lead in a matter of minutes and kept Portland within reaching distance at moments throughout the night.
The 37-made threes broke the old record of 36 set in 2011. Brian Roberts drained a wide open three at the top of the arc to rewrite the record with four minutes left in the game. The Warriors finished 30-39 from deep and the Trail Blazers recorded 19-36 clip for over 50 percent. Often, Portland would respond to a quick seven or eight point Golden State run with two to three shots from deep to keep the game close. It wasn't until the middle of the second quarter that the Warriors pushed the lead to 21 with an 11-2 run.
Andre Iguodala, Curry and Thompson combined to go 10-14 from deep four minutes into the second quarter. Iguodala sprained his left ankle with two minutes left in the third quarter after a collision with Lillard. He is listed as questionable for the Warriors next game.
Lillard bounced back in the third quarter by scoring 10 of his 17 in that frame and making three of four shots from beyond the arc. After the Warriors hit 100 points with five minutes to play in the third quarter, the Trail Blazers came back with a 15-6 run to cut the deficit to 106-83. Portland again mounded a run, scoring 10 unanswered points against the Warriors' reserves to start the fourth quarter that made it 110-96. Golden State would push the score to 124-104 with three minutes left to secure the win in Oracle.
Road Ahead
With the win against Portland, Golden State is halfway through its six-game home stand. The Warriors bring in the Phoenix Suns Saturday as part of a back-to-back. It will be the fourth and final meeting of the season, as the Warriors have taken all three games so far and are averaging 125 points against the Suns.
Portland, losers of four of their last five, will go home to take on the Orlando Magic tomorrow and search for some answers. Following that, the team hits the road for a four-game road trip, in which it will see three current playoff teams in the Western Conference (Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Dallas).