In order to calm down Damian Lillard and defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 123-105 on Tuesday night at Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors overcame a 23-point first-half deficit. Let’s discuss three significant takeaways from the undermanned defending champions’ third consecutive triumph, along with relevant footage and commentary, as always.
Warriors (eventually) slow down Damian Lillard
No player in the league was close to as hot Lillard entering Tuesday’s action, and the Warriors reacted appropriately. Unfortunately, the Oakland native was more than ready to be the singular focus of Golden State’s defense, exploiting that strategy from the opening tip to both get his teammates involved and produce his own offensive pretty much at will—in the first half, at least.
Lillard created back-to-back wide open corner triples for Matisse Thybulle early, content to play 4-on-3 as the Warriors sent two to the ball, then easily winning at the point of attack before the defense converged on him.
Golden State tried a box-and-one on Lillard, too, quickly giving up on it early after a couple ugly possessions on the back-line.
Running an extra defender at Lillard once he was picked up past halfcourt didn’t work, either.
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Thompson never found the touch he did in back-to-back wins over the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves in recent days, needing 21 shots to score 23 points and shooting a ho-hum 3-of-7 on triples.
Just like Lillard completely controlled the action throughout a superlative first half, though, Thompson did exactly the same to cap the Warriors’ 39-17 third quarter in an otherwise average performance.
Golden State owns the paint
The Warriors finished this game with 66 paint points, the second-most they’ve scored from that hallowed ground in any game this season.
Making that gaudy total all the more impressive is that they scored a whopping 44 of those points in the second half, no doubt encouraged by the coaching staff to take advantage of the Blazers’ sorely lacking rim-protection. No team in the league allows more shots at the rim than Portland, a rate that spikes even higher without the injured Jusuf Nurkic, per Cleaning the Glass.
With the long ball failing everyone but DiVincenzo, who shot 5-of-7 from deep in another awesome outing, the ultra-aggressive Warriors finished with an unbelievable 16 dunks and layups in the second half alone. Just as eye-popping? Golden State shot 23-of-25 from the paint following intermission, Kuminga and Looney especially making hay around the basket.
The Warriors didn’t shoot poorly from deep as a team. They’d obviously take 40% three-point shooting in pretty much any game going forward. In that vein, Golden State’s season-low 30 three-point attempts say much more about the team’s collective choice to exploit its opponent’s abject weakness than any severe shooting struggles.
Here’s hoping the notoriously three-happy Dubs keep picking at foes’ defensive scabs, no matter where they are, as the season’s stretch run continues.
Source: https://clutchpoints.com
