Game Report: Uninspiring Warriors defeat injury plagued Trail Blazers

With backcourt duo Damian Lillard and C.J McCollum sidelined, the Golden State Warriors were always going to have too much talent for the Portland Trail Blazers.

But although the Warriors took care of business on Wednesday night, it didn’t inspire the usual dominance, nor an unstoppable surge, that’s come to define home games this season.

The Golden State Warriors, playing with an odd lack of enthusiasm, managed to squeeze out a win over the injury-ridden Portland Trail Blazers.

Heading into the contest, there’d been plenty of attention surrounding Stephen Curry’s impending all-time three-point breaking record. Social media was alight with the proposition of a historic night; could Curry break Reggie Miller’s all time record, whilst simultaneously breaking teammate Klay Thompson’s most threes in a game?

From early in the game, it seemed as if Curry was aspiring to transfer dreams into reality; the three-point attempts were firing from the two-time MVP, however, they weren’t landing at the rate to which we’ve expected from the best shooter of all time.

It’s not often you’d suggest that a Curry three-point attempt wasn’t a great shot, but just over 15 minutes into the contest, the Warriors offense was stuttering with 28 points and Curry going was 2-9 from deep. It allowed the Trail Blazers to remain close, despite their own offense being completely devoid of shot-making in the absence of Lillard and McCollum.

Despite never putting the foot to the throttle, there never appeared to be a question mark on the result. A two-point lead at half met the barest of expectations, the Warriors grinding it up to a ten point lead by the start of the fourth.

It then got to 14 with just under six minutes remaining, before the Blazers, and full credit to them, fought valiantly to prevent the kind of blowout loss that many have succumbed to in Chase Center this season.

Knowing any kind of remarkable, record-breaking night was out of reach, Curry reduced his attempt rate in the second half, his 22 points still good enough to lead the Warriors on the night. Although it’s not likely to be remembered with too much fondness, the 104-94 win was another solid performance from the league-leading Dubs.

Golden State Warriors v Portland Trail Blazers: Two Key Stats

1. The enigma of Andrew Wiggins

The Canadian had a career night against the Magic from three-point range, making eight of his ten threes on the way to 28 points. Against Portland, Wiggins took just nine shots in a little under 33 minutes, scoring 14 points on 4-9 from the floor and 2-5 from three.

In previous seasons, especially in his former days at Minnesota, such a contrast would assemble a cast of criticism, questioning his varying aggressiveness and inconsistent production. In reality, though, this is the new version of Wiggins that’ll continue to be seen.

When you’re not the first, or even sometimes the second option, the shot attempts will fluctuate, often depending on how the opposition defends Curry and even Jordan Poole. With Thompson to return, Wiggins’ shot attempts will continue to see-saw up and down.

In saying all this, he still needs to find a way to contribute offensively on a nightly basis, just like he did against the Trailblazers in this one.

2. Warriors rookies stuff the stat sheet

Perhaps even more important than the win over Portland, Warriors rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody had big nights in Santa Cruz’s victory in the G-League.

According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Moody managed to get up 28 shot attempts, making 12 of them, including five threes, on the way to a 37 point, ten rebound, four steal performance. Kuminga had 25 points on 50% from the field, along with four assists and the usual highlight plays.

The Warriors move to 21-4, now beginning a five-game road trip starting with the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.