SAN FRANCISCO -- The Portland Trail Blazers assured that they would finish their first road trip of the season no worse than .500 with a 123-98 victory versus the Golden State Warriors Friday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.
“It was a good performance on both ends really, I like the way we started on offense, came down, took open threes, got into a rhythm early,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “But defensively I was pleased, and I like the way we bounced back after the Clippers (loss).”
The Trail Blazers are now 3-2 overall and 2-1 on the road this season. Portland has now won the last three meeting with Golden State.
In that aforementioned loss, the Trail Blazers went down big in the first half and, try as they might, never managed to put much of a scare into the Clippers in the second half. Much could be said of the way Friday’s game played out as well, though this time, it was the Trail Blazers who jumped out to an early advantage, one they would never relinquish.
Much of the credit for that goes to CJ McCollum, arguably Portland’s best player through the first five games of the season, for scoring 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from three in the first quarter alone.
“I really just focused on my balance, shooting the basketball, I wanted to make sure that I shot well to start the season and I think that I have done that. John (Yim) has been on me about getting off to a better start and to shoot more threes, getting into my pick-and-roll game. Obviously, I am a really good mid-range shooter but I am also a quality three point shooter. So I am trying to get more quality attempts from there.”
And it’s working. In the first milestone of the night, McCollum became just the second player in NBA history to make at least 25 three-pointers in the first five games of a season (Stephen Curry is the other, and he’s done it twice). He now has 26 threes on 46 percent shooting.
Though it wasn’t just McCollum’s accuracy from long range that helped Portland get off to a strong start. Their defense, still a work in progress after a short training camp and preseason, was sharp from the start Friday night. Portland held Golden State to just 21 points on 36 percent shooting in the first quarter, and were it not for former Trail Blazer Kent Bazemore going 3-of-3 from the field and 2-of-2 from three, the Warriors likely would have finished the first quarter in the teens.
After McCollum handled the offense in the first quarter, it was Carmelo Anthony’s turn to get going in the second quarter. The veteran forward went 4-of-6 from the field for 13 points in the second. And with three more points in the fourth, Anthony passed Tim Duncan for 14th all-time in scoring for the second milestone.
“For me to be right there with (Duncan) and to pass him and I am still going, so that is honor and a blessing for me to say that I can pass somebody like Tim Duncan,” said Anthony, “but also continue to do and play the game that I love.”
The Warriors managed to improve from the field while Anthony was making progress toward passing Duncan, though Portland limited the quality of Golden State’s three-point shots. The Blazers have struggled with three-point defense at times this season, but held the Warriors to just 1-of-7 shooting from deep in the second quarter and 4-of-17 in the first half.
“We didn’t want to give them clean looks and let them get going like last season when we came here, and you know that they play the type of game where If they get comfortable and they start making shots you get ran out of here not matter who’s on the floor,” said Damian Lillard. “We experienced that last season, so we just didn’t want to let them come in and play a comfortable game, and shoot threes and run around free and easy and having fun. I thought we set the tone with that in the beginning of the game and was able to sustain it.”
Between McCollum, Anthony and the defense, the Trail Blazers took a 67-55 lead into the halftime intermission. A good lead, but hardly insurmountable, and eight points less than their largest lead of the first half.
But then it was Lillard’s turn to run the show. After struggling from the field in the first half -- at least by his lofty standards -- Lillard went 5-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from three for 15 points in the third quarter. That helped Portland take an 18-point lead into the fourth and also pushed the 6-3 guard in his ninth season out of Weber State past the 15,000 point mark for his career. He joins Clyde Drexler as the only player in franchise history to surpass the 15k point total.
“Dame has had a fabulous career so far in Portland and obviously he has a long way to go,” said Stotts. “Anytime you pass a milestone like fifteen thousand points, especially with the same franchise, it’s pretty special. Obviously, he’s been a pretty special player for a long time for us.”
While Portland never seemed in any real jeopardy of falling victim to a fourth-quarter Warriors rally, they didn’t officially put the home team away until going on a 12-0 run midway through the quarter the road team a 30-point lead with 4:13 to play, more than enough to coast to an important road win.
Lillard led all scorers with 34 points by going 11-of-21 from the field, 6-of-10 from three and 6-of-6 from the line while also handing out eight assists. McCollum finished with 28 points, also on 11-of-21 shooting.
Anthony added 18 points and is now within striking distance of passing Dominique Wilkins, who sits in 13th all-time with 26,668 points. Anfernee Simons was the only other Trail Blazer to finish in double figures with 11 points in 22 minutes.
Stephen Curry led Golden State with 26 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes. Andre Wiggins finished with 15 points and Eric Paschall came off the bench to added 13.
Next up, the Trail Blazers will stick around the bay to play another game versus the Warriors Sunday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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