Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard was locked up by the Golden State Warriors defense. He even admitted that there were times when he couldn’t even get a shot up.

After their 116-94 loss in Game 1, Lillard shared his observations on the Warriors’ defense. He noticed that he was met by several defenders as he went thru screens and even in isolation plays. The defense was so tight that he couldn’t even get a shot up.

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All in all, Lillard just had 19 points and six assists. He was just 4-of-12 from the field and 2-of-5 from downtown. These are way below his postseason averages of 28.4 points per game on 43.1 percent shooting from the field and 3.8 three-pointers in 10 attempts nightly. Certainly, the Warriors did everything right in Game 1.

Despite his awful night, perhaps the good thing is that Lillard has figured out how the Warriors are going to play him. The next step would be to find a solution and a workaround to beat the Warriors’ defensive coverage.

It’s going to be a colossal task. The Warriors are the back-to-back defending champions for a very good reason. It is true that they house several of the best offensive players that the league has ever seen — all of which operate under a sophisticated offensive system developed by Steve Kerr. But once you see them play, you’ll discover that they are equally deadly on the defensive end of the court.