Trail Blazers suffer an embarrassing loss to the Golden State Warriors

No Stephen Curry. No Draymond Green. No D’Angelo Russell. No problem. The Golden State Warriors embarrassed the Portland Trail Blazers 127-118.

The Golden State Warriors picked up right where they left off last season against the Blazers. After sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals last season, the Warriors embarrass the Blazers in their first meeting of the season.

This is a game where everybody expected the Trail Blazers to torch the 1-5 Warriors. With Whiteside back in the lineup, the Blazers should have been able to. Portland struggled to play defense and couldn’t get much production on offense from players not named Damian Lillard and Hassan Whiteside.

QUARTER 1

The Golden State Warriors got off to a hot start. The birthday boy, Eric Paschall, had 11 points in the first six minutes of the game, making all three of his three-point shots. The Blazers were not too far behind during this. Hassan Whiteside had seven of the Blazers’ first nine points, making all of his shot attempts. Eric Paschall, (17 points in quarter one,) and the Golden State Warriors continued to find success on offense for the remainder of the quarter, but the Blazers were trailing them closely thanks to back-to-back threes from Damian Lillard and a couple of big plays from Mario Hezonja.

QUARTER 2

The Blazers continued to play poor defense against the Warriors in this quarter. Actually, the only player that even empressed me on that side of the floor was Skal Labissiere. Skal had a monster block at the beginning of the quarter and continued to play great defense down low. The Blazers finally take a lead in this game, in the final three minutes of the half, with a DEEP three-pointer from Damian Lillard. The Warriors would take the lead right back in the next possession with a Jordan Poole step-back three over Lillard. Again, this lead would disappear with an Anthony Tolliver three-pointer to give the Blazers a one-point lead.

In the first half, the offense mostly played great. Struggled early on, but put their foot on the gas in the second quarter. The defense was terrible and embarrassing. A casual fan watching this game probably did not know any of the Warriors players that were giving the Blazers so many problems,

QUARTER 3

The rookie, Eric Paschall, got back in his groove to start the second half. The Blazers had no answer for him, or anyone else, for the rest of the game. The Blazers’ lack of effort on defense was the story of this game. The Warriors were able to do whatever they wanted to the Blazers. On offense, Portland couldn’t get anything to go in, other than the occasional Dame jumper and Whiteside layup. The Blazers were also committing terrible off-ball fouls in this quarter. The Warriors had a lot of technical and bonus free throws.

QUARTER 4

The fourth quarter was very similar to the third. Portland struggled to score, even Lillard struggled for the majority of the quarter. The Warriors continued to obliterate the Blazers’ defense. Eric Paschall was the Warriors’ best player in this game. Paschall ended with 36 points and four three-pointers. Damian Lillard was the Trail Blazers top scorer with 39 points. Hassan Whiteside had 22 points and 11 rebounds.

This game was a major shock in the NBA. I believe Portland came into this game underprepared and way too confident. The Warriors showed they can still play basketball without any of their stars early on and Portland never adjusted.

The Trail Blazers will hopefully forget this game even happened in their next matchup against the Clippers.