The Golden State Warriors had little trouble dispatching the Portland Trailblazers on Saturday night in Oracle Arena. The Blazers looked every bit the worst defensive team in the league as the Warriors spent the better part of 48 minutes easily carving up that anemic defense for 135 points on 58 percent shooting from the field. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 34 points while Ian Clark dropped a career-high 23 off the bench.
Golden State never trailed in the contest.
Here are 10 thoughts on the game:
1. Fans hoping for a close game versus the Blazers and hometown superstar Damian Lillard were quickly disappointed as the Warriors jumped out of the gates 6-0, 20-12, 36-19, before finally settling on an 18-point lead to finish the first quarter. Durant went wild against Portland’s feeble D, getting multiple dunks in half court sets, threes in transition, and every mid-range jumper he wanted over a smaller defender. After a tough-shooting road trip, KD regained his efficient form needing only 13 shots and 10 free throw attempts to collect 34 points.
2. There was a point in the third quarter when the Warriors were straight toying with the Blazers. Up by 30-some-odd points, Draymond Green was throwing over-the-head lobs and dudes were passing up open dunks for corner threes. As the ultimate clowning, Stephen Curry finished the frame with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
3. In two games versus Portland, Ian Clark has scored 45 points on 17-of-19 shooting. His two highest scoring performances of his career have come against the Blazers. Clark has always been a good shooter, but now that his in-between floater game has gotten more consistent, and Kerr doesn’t need to rely on him as a ball-handler, he’s become the Warriors most potent and reliable scorer off the bench. The back up is shooting 43 percent from deep and averaging 7.3 points in only 14 minutes of burn. If he keeps this up, dude is going to get paid this summer.
4. You know the whole team is addicted to tossing lobs to JaVale when even Klay “I ain’t giving up sh-t” Thompson is getting in on the passing.
5. For KD to join the vaunted 50-40-90 Club, he’d have to connect on his next 72 free throws in a row or shoot about 93 percent to finish the season. As a fan of esoteric stats, it’d be fun to have two Warriors do it in the same year
6. The Warriors play basketball weird. (And it fills my heart with joy.)
7. The Blazers are paying Evan Turner $70 million over four years. Ugh. He’s averaging 9 points on 42 percent shooting. Woof. He’s a ball-dominant wing that can’t shoot from deep and every second he has the ball is one second less for Lillard and CJ McCollum — not ideal. Turner scored 3 points on 1-of-5 shooting. Yikes.
8. It was announced before the game that Festus Ezeli would be missing the rest of the season for knee surgery. It’s easy to forget because of the calamitous minutes in the Finals, but dude was a beast for the Dubs last year when Andrew Bogut was hurt to begin the season. Hopefully Swagzeli regains his form and can get his career on track.
9. Steve Kerr wants more attention paid on traveling violations, but I’m assuming he wasn’t expecting his own guys to call out Klay for extra steps.
10. As a fan of the Dubs, I hope they continue to destroy all their opponents with total disregard for other players’ feelings. As a fan of the unknown, it’d be nice to have a close game before the Christmas tilt with Lebron in Cleveland. Can George Hill please be healthy by Tuesday’s tip-off against the Jazz?