Game Thread Preseason Game #4 Blazers @ Warriors - October 15th 2021 - Friday - 7PM - RootTV- NBA TV

[Chris Craig]

Billups 0-4 as Blazers Coach

 

[DDolla]

All I want is to see Dame get his ring. I will not be mad if he ask for a trade.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

They gave up 41 to Curry and the guy played like a half a game.

 

[hoopsjock]

Despite looking better early on, the Blazers get blown out again and finish the preseason without a victory. What specifically do they need to improve? The Blazers Uprise Postgame Show will break it all down.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Despite looking better early on, the Blazers get blown out again and finish the preseason without a victory. What specifically do they need to improve? The Blazers Uprise Postgame Show will break it all down.

Glad you showed up.
Was just posting wondering where you two guys are?

 

[calvin natt]

They are taking “preseason doesn’t matter” to a new level

 

[BigGameDamian]

 

[OneSport3]

9 points
4-8 shooting
2 assists
Lots of hustle.
Yeah his is improving.

No he is not.

 

[OneSport3]

What I don’t understand is why they are sitting guys when they need the game time to work on instilling the new systems. That’s what the preseason is for.

 

[FlashWad]

maybe we should have a predict Buillips first win thread?

 

[MickZagger]

He pick Curry’s pocket too many times in practice?

 

[DDolla]

He pick Curry’s pocket too many times in practice?

Avery still better than Blevins. Liangelo Ball is also available

 

[Fairly-Hard]

They are taking “preseason doesn’t matter” to a new level

Yeah and the only reason the Blazers lost the second quarter was because Steph is "Steph" so we might as well just expect that.
He got 41 points in just under 30 mins. You would think maybe they would have planned on trying to stop him?

 

[Fairly-Hard]

No he is not.

Yeah he is.

 

[Minstrel]

He pick Curry’s pocket too many times in practice?

Bradley hasn't been a great defender for a few years now. I doubt they waived him because he was simply too good at defense.

 

[perkinsfor3]

What team is looking for a C? Charlotte? Bring back Plumlee and Simmons in a 3way trade.

 

[Minstrel]

From what I can tell, the team has only a few players that are both A. good enough to be important components of a title contender and B. fit into the modern era of roster construction.

Those are Damian Lillard, Norm Powell, Larry Nance and Robert Covington.

CJ also could fit the bill, but probably not alongside Lillard. Nurkic doesn't make the cut for (B)...in any previous era, he could be a significant part of a winner, but he's not a good fit for this era. Unless you're truly special like Jokic or Embiid, big and lumbering centers are just too hard to integrate into a high level team defense. Zeller's like a whatever--sure, he could be on the bench for a good or bad team. I like him, but he's not a meaningful enough needle-mover to worry about. He's a good addition after you've done the hard work of building a top end starting unit, IMO.

 

[Buffalo Custard]

I don't ask for much out of preseason - just something I can feel optimistic about........

Feck.

 

[THE HCP]

on a serious note, id expect much better effort this game, given it would be a bad sign if they have consecutive lousy efforts, even if its a preseason

Curious what made you think this?

 

[THE HCP]

Well well well...

???

 

[James lamphear]

Well watch the highlights and the defense is so far off right now you can't believe. Hopefully the players that injury can help. Because they no rim protection when Nurk so far up due he doesn't roll back in the key. What telling Nurk doesn't have the faints what he really doing. Right now this defense might be the wrong defense for this personal. To me the defense they trying to play you need some strong on the ball defender and that's going be this team problem this year.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Well watch the highlights and the defense is so far off right now you can't believe. Hopefully the players that injury can help. Because they no rim protection when Nurk so far up due he doesn't roll back in the key. What telling Nurk doesn't have the faints what he really doing. Right now this defense might be the wrong defense for this personal. To me the defense they trying to play you need some strong on the ball defender and that's going be this team problem this year.

Unless we trade CJ and 3 firsts for Simmons. Get it done!

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Can't believe those guys at 538 actually picked Portland to finish ahead of the Warriors.

Hollinger has Blazers over Warriors too. Hollinger is smart.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Can we sign Liangelo Ball and waive Blevins?

Morey would immediately sign Blevins.

 

[illmatic99]

This team folds at the first sign of pressure...

this is one trait that i don't like and am fearful that it will carryover.

not sure how chauncey gets out of it

 

[SlyPokerDog]

WARRIORS HEAD COACH STEVE KERR


ON STEPHEN CURRY’S 41 POINTS TO CLOSE OUT THE PRESEASON:

“He's been building up perfectly since before camp started and all of the training over the summer to now. Obviously, he missed the game in L.A., the other night, that was part of the plan. He didn't need to play all five games, but the last few days he got a lot of individual work in and he's clearly ready to roll to the regular season. So he's in a great place. The guy is a machine it's just amazing how he looks after himself, physically and emotionally. He's just an incredible athlete, at the peak of this powers still at, how old is he, 33? He's just remarkable to observe and obviously were lucky to have him leading the way for us.”


ON IF THERE WAS ANY THOUGHT TO LEAVING STEPHEN CURRY OUT THERE TO GET 50:

“No, no. Despite the pleas of Dub Nation so that he could score a certain number of points. This is the dream scenario where we can have a game where we have a lead sizable enough to be able to rest guys in the fourth. You have enough of those during the season, you can really look after guys and keep their minutes down, which is important. It's just preseason and who knows how it’ll all play out, but, we've had a really good few weeks and feel ready to roll for the regular season.”


ON ANDREW WIGGINS’ PRESEASON OVERALL:

“Yeah, he's not quite where he's going to be. He had the knee (left knee soreness) that kept him out a couple days last week. I think he's probably a couple weeks away from really being able to have his conditioning where he wants it to be and that's fine. That's usually the case with a lot of guys as you head into the regular season, so he's going to be fine. I thought his defense was great tonight. He did a lot of good things for us. We need his defense, and his rebounding and his size and athleticism much more than we need his scoring. You can tell with this team, this year, we're going to have a lot of shooting. We're going to make a lot of 3’s, the floor is going to be spread, so Andrew is going to fit right in and I'm not worried about him at all.”


ON DAMION LEE’S ROLE WITH THE TEAM ENTERING THE REGULAR SEASON:

“It's a great question. (Warriors Assistant Coach) Mike Brown and I were sitting on the bench looking at the stat sheet and all the guys who we have and Damion has had a fantastic camp and his earned some minutes for sure, but a lot of guys have. Damion will start the year in the rotation for sure and I think the way it's going to play out is a little bit like my first year here when we kind of coined the term “Strength In Numbers”. We were going back and forth between (LB) Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston at times and we just have a lot of guys who can play. It's a good problem to have, but it's not an easy one to solve because, you got a lot of mouths to feed. It's important that that the guys understand going in that some nights are going to be theirs and some nights will be other guys and as long as everybody buys in, it'll all work out.”


ON IF HE PREFERS TO PLAY DAMION LEE WITH STEPHEN CURRY:

“I think the thing I love about Damion, it doesn't matter. He's good in any unit. He's just a guy who understands the game so well. He's now, I think, in the best place he's been in terms of his physical performance and the mental game just being on top of his game and having seen everything now with the coverages, the lineups and seeing the floor. It's all converging probably to the point where this is the best I've seen him. He's been one of our best players throughout camp and he's earned the right to play for sure.”



TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH CHAUNCEY BILLUPS


ON HOW HE WOULD DESCRIBE THEIR PRESEASON:

“I would say we had some good moments and we had some moments that was like dang, we’re a lot further away than I thought. So it's been a little bit up and down, not really too surprised with it. Anytime there’s change there’s a period in there where it's going to take some adjusting to. It was a little bit up and down. I thought tonight for the most part, about the first 20 minutes of the game we played pretty well. Then that turnover bug got in and jumped on us the last four minutes of the second and they turned those in, Steph (Curry) got hot, they turned those into really big loud buckets. That’s just kind of how they play. Then the third quarter they’re historically an incredible third quarter team and they did just that today scoring 43 points in that third quarter, there was no way we could get back into it at that point. I wasn’t going to play the starters in unmeaningful minutes.”


ON HIS BIGGEST CONCERNS HEADED INTO THE REGULAR SEASON:

“Well I think the one thing that you just hope to have is health man. We’ve already been a little unfortunate with guys being out, really, really important guys to what we’re going to try and do being out. When you're practicing and you're introducing things, and you're changing things, and you got three, four, five guys that are in your rotation that can't do it makes it tough, makes it really tough. That’s your biggest concern is health, and then secondly just us trying to get some continuity out there. They kind of coincide with each other. As far as us, our offense and defense, things like that, those things will come. I'm not really concerned with that. We have some really good players that you can make up for some of those things at times as you're trying to get there. So I'm really not concerned with that. I'm more concerned with things you can't control.”


ON WHAT THEY IMPROVED SINCE THE FIRST MATCHUP WITH GOLDEN STATE:

“I thought we did a good job, like I said, the first half I thought we did a good job getting back. They didn’t hurt us too bad in that transition game. We really got hurt there (in the first game). We got hurt when we turned the basketball over a ton, they turn those into really quick baskets. I think their pace hurt us really early in the game but I thought it really hurt us in the third quarter, their pace. I thought we made some gains in today’s game where when I stepped in front of ya’ll after the last game when I was really disappointed with our effort, with our execution, I don’t feel that way today. I thought our guys played hard. I thought they tried to play the right way. The one thing that all preseason we just haven’t been able, we can't make a 3. We can't make shots, and granted a day like today where you go 10-for-40 but you got two of your best shooters not playing, Dame (Damian Lillard) and Ant (Anfernee Simons), you would hope that some of those 3’s would be them. So that’s not ideal.”



WARRIORS FORWARD KEVON LOONEY & GUARD DAMION LEE


ON THE HOW MUCH FUN IS IT TO PLAY WHEN STEPHEN CURRY IS PLAYING LIKE THAT:


LOONEY:

“It is always fun to watch when Steph is putting on a show like that. We see it a lot. It is getting close to the real games, so you see him turn it up. My team played pretty well, so it is exciting as you can tell for tonight.”


ON HOW THEY ARE FEELING HEADING INTO THE REGULAR SEASON:


LOONEY:

“I feel great. It’s been a good training camp. Most of the guys stayed healthy for the most part. Everyone is excited to get ready for opening night and the long haul of the season. I feel good.”


LEE:

“Yes the same, feel good. I think like Loon said which is the main thing going into the season. We are ready to get these games underway. It starts Tuesday so we are getting ready to lock into that.”


ON PLAYING TIME THIS SEASON DUE TO THE DEPTH OF THE ROSTER:


LEE:

“The beauty is that we just have to go out there and play. For myself, Loon and guys that have been in the system for the last couple of years, just go out there and do our role and do what we are supposed to do. The beauty of it is, is that we do have a lot of guys that can go out there and play. That is not really our problem, I guess that is the coaches figuring out that whole thing. For us it is just going out there and play and do what we can.”


ON THE DEPTH OF THIS TEAM:


LOONEY:

“We have a really deep team. That has been one of our mantras in the past. Strength in Numbers so I know that it is a long season and Steve (Kerr) is going to give everyone the opportunity to prove themselves. That is something that Steve has always done a great job of is keeping guys engaged and giving everyone a chance to go out there and contribute. We just go out there and play and Steve always tells us our role and what to expect. It is always a good problem to have when we have a lot of veteran, scorers, and a lot of guys who deserves to play. We know that the coaching staff is going to handle that and we just have to go out there and do our job.”


ON HOW HE PREPARED THIS OFFSEASON:


LEE:

“Mindset. Coming in knowing what is expected of me every single night. I have built my career off of staying ready. From when I was younger, college days and of course just being pro, just fighting, grinding and staying ready. Whether I play five, 10 minutes. I feel like I have said this the past three or four years, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, it doesn’t matter whenever is called, it is just a matter of going out there and being a professional and try to take care of business.”


ON IF THERE WAS A SPECIFIC PART OF HIS GAME HE WORKED ON THIS OFFSEASON:


LEE:

“No. I mean a little bit of everything. The main thing has been my mindset every single day. Playing for Bruiser Flint in college (Drexel) and Rick Pitino at Louisville one thing that they really preached is to treat everyday like you are on a one-day contract. For me it is about going out and leaving an impression every time that I go out there. Try to help these guys get a win and stay consistent.”


ON HOW IT FELT TO PUT BACK STEPHEN CURRY’S MISSED 3 RIGHT BEFORE HALFTIME:


LEE:

“It is funny, that is something that we were joking around in shootaround earlier today and I was just trying that shot. That exact shot, just flipping the ball up and literally the scenario happened tonight. It was pretty dope. You see him at the start of halftime look at me surprising like ‘Yo, we worked on that today.’ It is nice to see something from practice translate over to the game.”



WARRIORS GUARD MOSES MOODY


ON WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WATCH STEPHEN CURRY SCORE 41 UP CLOSE:

“Man, it’s crazy. Just be sitting there and he’s doing it for your team because I’m on the team now, so when he’s doing it for us, it makes it a lot sweeter than watching it on TV.”


ON WHAT WAS HIS PLAN FOR HIS FINAL TWO PRESEASON GAMES:

“Honestly, it’s just doing what coach has been telling me to do. I figure if I go out there and execute and do what they tell me to do, then that’s all I can really control. Shots, sometimes they fall sometimes they don’t. I put the work in and I should just trust that those are going to fall. Other than that, control what I can control.”


ON WHAT IT’S LIKE PLAYING WITH STEPHEN CURRY AND WHAT THAT ALLOWS HIM TO DO:

“He makes the game a lot easier. When he’s coming off a ball screen, sometimes they just want to blitz him and get the ball out of his hands and it leaves the floor a lot more spaced out and a lot more opportunities for guys to hit open shots. That lineup was out there with Steph and Belli (Nemanja Bjelica) and a lot of shooters were on the floor and it just really opened up the floor.”


ON IF HE’S THINKING ABOUT THE CHANCE TO PLAY WITH CURRY, GREEN & THOMPSON:

“Yeah, that is something I’m thinking about being out on the court with the “the big three” that’s going to be an experience and a lot of fun.”


ON WHAT SURPRISED HIM THE MOST ABOUT HIS FIRST PRESEASON:

“I wouldn’t say anything caught me off guard because my mindset was to expect the unexpected. Everything is new and surprising, so if you are expecting to be surprised then you won’t be surprised, but I will say the speed with how fast we play the game. We get it up the floor, we run and we are moving and threes are going up, so just that playstyle. I like that a lot.”



TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ McCOLLUM


ON HOW HE WOULD DESCRIBE THEIR PRESEASON:

“A work in progress. A lot of injured in camp, a lot of bodies down, working guys in and out, figuring out the rotations, things of that nature. Learning a new offense, learning a new defense, a new staff. It's been a work in progress.”


ON HOW HE FELT THEY PLAYED TONIGHT:

“I think from an effort standpoint we played hard. We, for the most part, followed the game plan. Obviously they went on a run in the second half, Steph (Curry) got hot, (we) turned the ball over a lot, gave up some offensive rebounds. But all in all, I have to watch the game again, I thought we competed.”


ON THE START OF THE REGULAR SEASON:

“I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad the preseason is over. I'm looking forward to us getting our bodies back, Cody (Zeller), Larry (Nance Jr.), Ant (Anfernee Simons), Dame (Damian Lillard) obviously and hit the ground running on Wednesday.”


ON WHAT THEY NEED TO WORK ON:

“Just get more familiar with everything, offensively, defensively, being in the right spots, understanding the timing of certain plays, understanding defensively how to communicate better, more effectively, closeouts, rotations. There’s a lot of stuff we can tighten up. I think a lot of teams are in that, especially teams with new coaches, with new staff. Going through training camp trying to learn some stuff and then trying to apply it and then translating that to actual games.”


ON HIS EXPECTATIONS HEADING INTO TRAINING CAMP THIS SEASON:

“I didn’t really have expectations because I’ve been with the same coach, the same staff, for so long so I just kind of approached it as I'm going to do my job, I'm going to get there early, kind of learn as much as I can and try to help the guys. I didn’t know what to expect, I played with the same coach for so long wasn’t sure what to expect with Chauncey (Billups) but I think that we’ve been playing attention to detail, we’ve been focused, understanding we have to adjust, learn some new things for certain guys. And obviously with the players we brought in through free agency they got to get acclimated with what we’re doing too.”

 

[Minstrel]

Hollinger has Blazers over Warriors too. Hollinger is smart.

I suspect he didn't account for Jordan Poole looking so good. A lot of analysts have been saying that Golden State's going to be without Klay for a few months and then he might struggle when back and therefore downgraded the Warriors. But if Poole plays in the regular season the way he's played in the preseason, the Warriors are going to have a second dynamic guard even before Thompson returns. That changes things a lot for them.

 

[Tince]

Yeah and the only reason the Blazers lost the second quarter was because Steph is "Steph" so we might as well just expect that.
He got 41 points in just under 30 mins. You would think maybe they would have planned on trying to stop him?

All this time, I read it was our drop scheme that caused him to go off against us. Maybe that wasn't the reason after all?

 

[AldoTrapani]

Be prepared guys, this is Dame’s last year here for sure. But me personally I’m looking forward to the new era..

 

[Labinot41]

Wtf was this pre season bruh