Blazers v. GSW Game Preview (11/2):
Our Last game: 10/31 @ SAC. Basically, the team played apathetically through three quarters before the wheels fell off, and SAC finished with a 32-23 4th quarter and a 9-point victory. Dame had 20 and 7 rebounds and LMA had 22, but 40% shooting
Their Last game: 127-104, 11/1/14 against the L*kers. Klay Thompson, who signed a four-year maximum extension worth about $70 million Friday, shot 14-for-18 from the floor for 41 points and shut down K*be Bryant in the 4th quarter, allowing only 1 of Bryant’s 28 points. Steph Curry added 31 points and 10 assists, and the Warriors withstood Bryant's big plays to turn the game into a laugher in the team's home opener.
K*be Bryant said:
These guys, man, you can't blink against this team. ... When you blink, they bust the game wide open.
Our last game vs. other team (season series)): W, 119-117 (OT) on 4/13/14. Aldridge had 26 points, including the go-ahead basket with 37 seconds left in overtime, to overcome Steph Curry’s 47 and defeat the Warriors in Moda Center. Draymond Green’s step-back three had sent the game to overtime.
ESPN said:
The win, which featured 16 lead changes and nine ties, assured the Blazers of no less than the fifth seed in the playoffs…(and) assured a matchup against Houston.
Other Last year’s team + Changes to their roster:
Zach Lowe said:
They’ve got a fantastic foundation on the wing in (Harrison) Barnes, Klay Thompson, and (Steph) Curry. They locked up Curry to a below-market contract that will be one of the league’s best bargains if he stays healthy. They’ve got a bright, young front office, a bold head coach the players like, and a diligent staff of assistants. But one playoff run is only a single step, and going forward from that point can be more challenging than getting there. “This year, the goal for us was to make the playoffs,” Myers says. “We were lucky enough to accomplish that. Now the goal is to see if we build on that accomplishment.”
Klay Thompson just signed a max extension worth roughly $70M over 4 years starting in 2015-16.
Injury Updates: Meyers Leonard could be back for the Blazers. David Lee and Brandon Rush are Day-to-day for the W’s.
Matchups:
PG: Damian Lillard v. Stephen Curry. Perhaps the marquee matchup tonight with two All-Star PGs who happen to be among the best long-range shooters in the game squaring off against each other. The last time Curry came to Moda he dropped 47. Last night he had 31 against the L*kers. Damian has had a slow start to the season, averaging only 15 ppg, but bounced back from a poor shooting performance Opening Night to go 4-8 from three and earn 9 Free Throws.
SG: Wesley Matthews v. Klay Thompson. Klay is one of the few guards in the league with the defensive chops to slow down Wes as much as Wes does him. Klay’s 41 last night showed that he can go off on anyone on any given night, and his quick release means it will be a tough night for Wes chasing Thompson around.
SF: Nicolas Batum v. Harrison “Family-Friendly” Barnes/Andre Iguodala. Barnes is athletic and developing a nice mid-range game, but Nic at this point should still have a marked edge. With Curry and Thompson taking a lot of the attention of Dame and Wes, expect that Batum and LMA take a larger role in the offensive flow. Iguodala is a super sixth-man who plays about 30 mpg and, while not Olympic-team caliber anymore, is still a heady defensive player and one that can put up numbers in bunches. Think 2010 Crash Wallace.
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge v. Draymond Green/Festus Ezeli. The only (duh) clear matchup advantage for the Blazers. With David Lee out, LMA should be able to feast on Green and Ezeli, and the propensity of those two (and Bogut) to get into foul trouble means that POR can get GSW into a small lineup quickly. As with the SF matchup, look for LMA to get a large portion of the touches in the first half to keep some of the onus off of the two guys chasing Curry and Thompson around.
C: Robin Lopez v. Andrew Bogut. Bogut is no longer the All-Star-level big man expected with the #1 overall pick, but he is tough-nosed on defense and has a varied amount of post moves that he can go to. He’s not called upon to carry a ton of the offensive burden for GSW, but Lopez can’t leave him alone. He’s also quick enough to hang with Lopez if the Blazers go with the Batum/Lopez side pick-and-roll. RoLo (and Kaman and LMA) need to bounce back from their lackluster rebounding efforts in the first two games, or Bogut and Ezeli will eat their lunch.
Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: Another early-season matchup at home versus a western conference playoff contender. A team that put up 127 last night against a Blazers team that needs to show some heart earlier in games. Portland hasn’t played a complete game yet.
Current Power Rankings:
RipCityTwo (PtldPlatypus): (11) Kerr knows the game, but he has never coached. Until this team proves that they're upper echelon with him at the helm, I'm not buying it.
ESPN: (5) The Steve Kerr era is off to an undeniably promising start. He inherited a top-flight defense and already has the Dubs humming offensively with all that movement. Don't really want to overreact to gaudy preseason numbers, but it's hard not to buy into the optimism, especially with a healthy Andrew Bogut back.
Covers: (7) I'm still not sure I understand the firing of Mark Jackson, but the Warriors should be even better this season as they go for their first division title since Rick Barry was still playing.
Grantland: (Western Bloodbath—Above the Fray) The Warriors are the team outside the Spurs-Thunder-Clippers trinity with the best chance of developing the kind of two-way balance that is a prerequisite for title contention: Golden State has the defense down already; it ranked third in points allowed per possession last season; and these guys will be stingy as long as Andrew Bogut is there to wall off the rim.
NBA.com (4) Steve Kerr's offensive changes seem to be working. The Warriors passed the ball more in the preseason and led the league in effective field goal percentage by a wide margin, as Klay Thompson campaigned for a max contract extension. But if Harrison Barnes is going to start and play more minutes than Andre Iguodala, the defense is going to suffer.
Link to Grandpa Blaze's Prediction Game
link to MediocreMan's Over/Under game
Links to other team’s site(s): Warriors’ Official Site
www.nba.com/warriors
Final Thoughts: The Splash Brothers and crew come in tonight on a rush from scoring 127 last game, but on a travel back-to-back. The Blazers’ offense needs to bring it for four quarters, or else this could get ugly quickly. I think they do, if for no other reason that this team last, while healthy, didn't have 3 poor offensive games in a row. A good measuring stick for the early season.
Blazers 120
GSW 114
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BLAZERS' GAME NOTES 
