The Portland Trail Blazers absolutely demolished the Golden State Warriors by 20 for their first win of the 2025-26 season, proving that this is no longer the rebuilding team that teams can look forward to playing on their schedule.
Golden State was playing the second half of a back-to-back after an overtime win over the Denver Nuggets. Still, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr wanted to make it clear that Portland earned this victory, praising their culture and established identity that should have Blazers fans excited about their team's future outlook.
“Everybody deals with whatever comes your way, and there’s a lot of difficult moments to the schedule, whatever,” Kerr said after the blowout loss. “But tonight was not about that. It was about Portland and what they’ve built and the length and athleticism and the style of play. They were brilliant. I would be embarrassed to sit here and blame fatigue when a team just came out and just took it to us."
“It was about them and their great play, and this city is really going to enjoy watching the Blazers because they play hard and they’ve got a real identity and they’re doing a really good job of rebuilding the franchise after the long run with Terry [Stotts] and [Damian Lillard] and CJ [McCollum]. It has been a rough couple of years, but they’ve used that time wisely and built a really good roster.”
Opposing teams are taking notice of Portland's newfound identity
This has now been consecutive games to start the season in which a key player or head coach has praised the Blazers' improvement. First, it was superstar Anthony Edwards complementing Portland's roster after his 41-point performance.
"You coming to play Portland, it ain't no more nights off, no more gimmie wins," Edwards said. "I'm not gonna lie, I love their team."
The Blazers fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves with a final score of 118-114 after being outscored 30-19 in the fourth quarter. They could've easily been 2-0 to start the season, but will have a chance to improve upon their .500 record with back-to-back games in Los Angeles against the Clippers and Lakers.
They also catch a break with the recent news that Lakers superstar Luka Doncic will be reevaluated in one week after suffering a left finger sprain and lower left contusion, ESPN's Shams Charania reports.
But regardless of who is suiting up on the other side or if the opposing team is playing consecutive nights, it's already clear that the Blazers are no longer the cakewalk matchup they've been the past few years. It's going to be an uphill battle for them to end a four-year playoff drought, given the state of the Western Conference. But they're going to be competitive each and every night due to the defensive identity they've established. Kerr is right: as a fan, it's already way more entertaining to watch.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin turned his vision for this roster into a reality this offseason, and opposing teams are already noting the improvement. It's only a matter of time before the rest of the league catches on, too.