In A Nutshell
Hideous defense from both teams lends a Summer League feel to this contest which featured laughably easy jumpers piled upon painfully easy drives with wince-inducing turnovers scattered throughout. As one might expect, Jamal Crawford shines.
Game Flow
Both teams telegraphed their intentions early in this contest. Each apparently filed restraining orders against each other, leading a Multnomah County court to declare that no player from either squad could come within six feet of any player from the other squad. This led to scoring. Tons of it. Upon being subbed in Jamal Crawford finished the period with 9 straight points. The Blazers scored 30 in the opening frame. Golden State scored 25, mostly because they were slightly shorter in players and experience than the Blazers.
Both second units played sloppy to open the second period but the turnovers led to more points: 32 for Portland in the quarter and 30 for Golden State, producing a 62-55 halftime lead for Portland. For all those who think that more points = more excitement, note that the crowd was flat at this point in the contest as it became apparent that no energy was being expended on defense and thus no results were transferable from this game to any other. It was almost pretend basketball...not quite, but close.
Both opponents paced themselves in the third period. Portland started out hot, making most of their shots for the first 6:00 of the quarter while Golden State missed long. Then, almost exactly at the halfway mark of the third, the Warriors started scoring at the rim while the Blazers took their turn going cold from outside. Portland still led by 10, 85-75, when the very thin sheen of mist cleared.
The fourth period started with Portland's bench players committing defensive abominations that surely would have gotten them swallowed up by the ground were this a just and immediately retributive universe. The Warriors scored 9 buckets right at the rim in the first 6 minutes of the period, nearly all from halfcourt sets. Philosophers note: if the Blazers were trying to tank games all they would have had to do was leave in this unit and the Warriors would have cruised to an easy victory. As it was Golden State regained the lead 96-95 with 6:20 left. Then Portland's first unit closed down the lane and the Warriors went back to the outside shot. Portland did too. Portland hit more threes than the Warriors and drew more foul shots on top of that, providing the final margin of 118-110.
Take-Away Points
This would have been a great night to take a seven year old kid to his first NBA game. It was like Kool-Aid when you were expecting wine tasting.
Individual Notes
Go ahead and check the Warriors vs Trail Blazers boxscore. Just remember to put an asterisk by everything you see. We'll hit the highlights here.
Jamal Crawford scored 34 on 10-18 shooting, 13-13 from the foul line. The rest of his line? 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers. It was pure, uncut JC.
J.J. Hickson got 23 on 10-17 shooting, many off of his 5 offensive rebound performance. He had 13 boards overall.
Joel Przybilla had 14 rebounds.
Raymond Felton had 10 assists.
Nicolas Batum went 4-9 from distance and had a couple of the rare decent defensive moments of the night.
Luke Babbitt was the only kid at the party missing shots tonight, firing 2-7 overall.
Even in this kind of game Nolan Smith only managed 2 points, 2 steals, and 0 assists in 15 minutes.
Jonny Flynn didn't make it off the bench after that last game.
Fun With (Inflated) Numbers
- Blazers 48% shooting, Warriors 52%.
- Blazers 43.5% from the arc, Warriors 50%
- Blazers 24-28 from the free throw line, Warriors 8-11...ballgame.
- Both teams combined for 178 shot attempts
- Warriors score 68 points in the paint. That's got to be some kind of record. Normally you'd look at 68 in the paint and only 11 free throw attempts and say the officials must have screwed up. But this was legit. Portland totally respected their personal space and lifestyle choices every time they drove the lane.
Final Thoughts
Yeah. You don't want any.
Golden State Of Mind will give you the Warriors story.
Warriors vs Trail Blazers boxscore again. Agents are framing it and making highlight films of their clients from this game as we speak.
Your Jersey Contest scoreboard and the form for Friday's game.
--Dave (blazersub@gmail.com)