The Golden State Warriors fell to the Portland Trail Blazers 125-122 on Wednesday night at Moda Center, a five-minute scoreless drought when they needed points most proving the difference in a hard-fought, back-and-forth affair. Here are three key reactions—with related clips and analysis, of course—from another lost opportunity for the short-handed defending champs.
Crunch-time drought dooms Dubs
Jordan Poole dropped 38 points and six assists on Wednesday, following up a career-best 12-assist performance in the Warriors' win over the Oklahoma City Thunder both Steve Kerr and Draymond Green said might've been his best as a pro. Golden State seemed en route to another pivotal win without Steph Curry when Poole briefly took over midway through the fourth quarter, roasting Anfernee Simons one-on-one for a layup then shaking Jerami Grant into a filthy step-back three.
The Warriors led 114-110 with 5:48 remaining after Poole's outburst, coming back from an early fourth-quarter deficit to seemingly get a grasp on the game before crunch-time. Instead, in a scene that's become all too familiar with and without Curry on the floor, they completely lost control when it mattered most.
Golden State's next score didn't come until more than five minutes later, Portland salting away a three-possession lead when Poole got loose for a layup with 46 seconds left.
The Dubs completely abandoned their normal offense in the game's biggest moments. Poole, mostly composed and controlled in PDX, found himself frantically forcing the issue, losing the ball while trying to split a ball-screen trap with a spin move and wasting another trip by isolating for a tough, pivoting runner.
Klay Thompson clanked a pull-up transition three and Green threw the ball away trying to find Poole through a backdoor window that never quite opened.
The Warriors had two chances to tie the game on open threes with just over two minutes left on the fourth-quarter clock, but Andew Wiggins and Donte DiVincenzo misfired on the same trip. Green's putback attempt was just off the mark.
Maybe there really was a lid on the basket for Golden State in the clutch. But process begets results, and the Warriors deviated from the movement-heavy, pass-first, quick-thinking offensive approach that had helped them keep pace with Lillard and the Blazers throughout Wednesday's game when they needed points most.
Poole's eye-popping shot-making and Thompson's continued hot hand tempted that hero ball, all the more enticing with Curry watching at home. It wasn't surprising when Golden State's offense crumbled in crunch-time, though—not just because that's been such a common trend in 2022-23, but because the Warriors gave up on playing the brand of basketball that makes them successful.
Golden State gets killed in the paint
Golden State outscored the Blazers by a whopping 39 points from deep, shooting 21-of-49 on triples. Thompson and Poole hit seven threes apiece, DiVincenzo drained five long balls and Wiggins went 2-of-3.
Such a massive discrepancy should be enough to beat a similarly three-happy team like Portland, particularly given its defense's inability to keep the ball in front and prevent attempts at the rim. Only the San Antonio Spurs, who sport the league's worst defense, allow more shots at the basket than the Blazers, per Cleaning the Glass.
Portland managed to make up for so starkly losing the long-range battle by absolutely owning the paint, racking up 66 points from that hallowed ground. Lillard was 16-of-16 at the free throw line all by himself, where the Blazers outscored the Warriors by a whopping 22 points—just two points less than their advantage in the paint.
There's no shame in letting Lillard turn the corner. He's a red alert for ball-screen help defenders, with cat-quick pull-up shooting ability and sudden off-dribble burst to live in the painted area when he wants. But there were way too many times in Wednesday's game when Golden State offered little resistance at the point of attack, putting the onus on Green's help defense magic to avoid easy scores.
The Blazers, with dynamic ball handlers like Lillard and Simons, are always tough to defend. They were made even more dangerous on Wednesday by the injury absence of Jusuf Nurkic and pre-game trade of Josh Hart, affording Chauncey Billups the chance to play five-out offense—with the high-flying Eubanks as a dive man—from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
Dribble penetration is a lasting X-factor for the Warriors. The more they stop it on one end and find it at the other, the much harder it is for the reigning champs to be beaten. Golden State was on the opposite ends of that spectrum against Portland, climbing uphill even while splashing threes as a result.
Warriors flip the defensive switch
The Warriors almost lost their grip on this game in the second quarter, completely unable to contain the ball—even while Lillard was sitting—and badly missing Thompson's flame-throwing on the other end as he got a brief rest. Portland was cleaning the offensive glass and winning the energy battle, too.
When Golden State trailed by nine with a few minutes left before halftime, it seemed like the visitors were well on their way to a double-digit deficit at intermission. But rather than crumbling under the Blazers' momentum, the Warriors flipped the switch defensively to create some of their own.
Look how many times the Dubs help and recover here. Don't forget Wiggins' ball denial after Poole's pitch-perfect close-out, nor Donte DiVincenzo stunting toward Jerami Grant to prevent the extra pass to Simons for three. This is Green at his back-line best.
That defensive possession stuck out like a sore thumb compared to pretty much every one coming before it. Golden State just hadn't operated with that type of all-court intensity and connectedness until then, begging the question of whether the Dubs had suddenly turned it on.
The next two trips were easy proof of the affirmative, Lillard and Simons simply overwhelmed by the Warriors—gashed off the bounce all night up to that point— springing traps in ball-screen action.
The edge Golden State summoned defensively translated to the other end, too, culminating in Poole's buzzer-beating three just before halftime. It came after the Warriors made multiple extra passes, going from good to great offensively to put a cap on a game-changing second quarter run.
The genesis of that spurt wasn't entirely random, by the way. Who wouldn't be invigorated by DiVincenzo's quick-jump poster dunk on Eubanks?
DONTE JUST CAUGHT A BODY 😱 pic.twitter.com/7R6iIHV6D2
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 9, 2023
The Warriors aren't good enough to wait to fight defensively until they're spurred on by a highlight—especially while Curry's still sidelined. They obviously couldn't sustain that hyper-aggressive approach over the game's remainder, either. There was just no lasting answer for Lillard's constant forays to the rim.
Still, just that Golden State has the ability to go from zero to sixty defensively is a reminder of what this team could be at its two-way peak, and a ringing endorsement of Green's sweeping influence on that side of the ball.
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