Stephen Curry and his prolific shooting have dashed the Portland Trail Blazers’ hopes for over a decade now. On Sunday night, the Golden State Warriors star was doing it again as he authored another virtuoso
performance with 48 points on 12-19 shooting from beyond the arc at the Moda Center.
He was unbelievable,” Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter said. “We tried all types of things — double teams, smalls on him, bigs on him.”
After Curry’s ninth 3-point hit, he shook his head furiously as he crossed the half court line, roaring like a mad man. After the 11th, he just grinned slyly as he jogged back on defense, taking quiet glee in the 3-point torture he was inflicting on the Trail Blazers.
But this time, it was Portland’s turn to play spoiler by making all that work come in a losing effort for Curry.
Losers of 11 of 14 entering Sunday and still paddling upstream through injuries, the Blazers earned a badly needed 136-131 win over the Warriors — even on a night Curry was playing at the peak of his generational powers. The Blazers withstood each Golden State surge. Each Curry monsoon. Then, once again in a crunch-time situation down the stretch, the Blazers made enough plays to run through the tape. The win exorcised some of the demons from the close losses that have defined the last month in Rip City, and Splitter wasn’t too prideful to admit this game had more significance than most played in mid-December.
“We needed it,” Splitter said about the win. “For the morale, for the job that we’re doing. The whole squad, just from players and coaches and the performance team, everyone — everyone is fighting and working everyday to get better, to get guys back to the court, to get them playing better. Players are doing extra work, extra recovery, extra shooting to get to this point. So this one is sweet.”
Many factors and players contributed to the Blazers’ breakthrough win. Most important, the Blazers made enough shots to keep pace with Curry’s firepower. Blazers forward Jerami Grant (7-13 on 3s) and guard Shaedon Sharpe (5-7 on 3s) led that charge with 35 points apiece. In the third quarter, Sharpe helped the Blazers weather the first Curry flurry by finding his own jumper and igniting Portland’s offense with three steals. Then in the fourth, every time the Blazers desperately needed a bucket, Grant delivered with a right-side 3-pointer.
“Huge,” Splitter said about Grant’s performance, which included 19 fourth-quarter points. “They were blitzing, putting two guys on Deni [Avdija] sometimes, and our guys were very smart finding Jerami in the corner. That right corner is special for him.”
“I was open,” Grant added. “I think my teammates just did a good job of finding me. I had a lot of time to find the seams.”
The marksmanship from Grant and Sharpe helped the Blazers shoot 20-39 (51.3%) from beyond the arc, just outdoing Golden State’s 3-point percentage for the game. The Blazers also got a huge boost in the form of 22 minutes from center Donovan Clingan and 19 minutes from backup big Robert Williams III. Clingan had missed the last three games, Williams the last two. Their impact was clear as Clingan (10 rebounds, 3 points, 3 blocks) towered over everybody in the paint and Williams (11 points, 11 rebounds) skied for rebounds and alley oop dunks. The duo helped the Blazers win the rebounding battle 43-36 and outscore Golden State in the paint 42-38. Splitter and others stressed just how important it is to Portland’s foundation to have the center corps back in the lineup.
“You need them,” Splitter said. “To protect the rim, to rebound the ball. And both still have minutes restrictions, so we were kinda almost doing math every timeout, like how many minutes do they have left?”
With 7:42 remaining in the third quarter, the Blazers trailed 79-70 after three straight Curry 3s. With 9:40 left in the game, they trailed 109-99. They trailed by five points with 4:55 left and by five points again with 2:33 left. Each time, the Blazers responded with runs to tie or regain the lead. With 18 seconds left and the Blazers holding a 132-129 lead, Curry had the ball, threatening again. The man who killed Portland all night was thwarted this time by a double team by Toumani Camara and Sharpe, as his attempted pass got stolen away by Camara. The steal essentially iced the game.
Whether it was through timely 3s from Grant and Sharpe, the steadiness of Clingan and Williams, physical buckets from Avdija, or the heart and grit of forwards Sidy Cissoko and Camara, the Blazers were resilient all night. They now have a 3-0 record against Golden State this season to show for it.
“I don’t think that was the case,” Splitter said regarding if the team got discouraged by Curry’s shotmaking. “We just kept playing, trying to hit singles — not just going nuts and putting your head down. Everybody was positive in every huddle, talking about offense, talking about defense, how can we do better.”
“We just pushed through,” Grant added. “We definitely didn’t give up. We kept our poise.”
As Grant dribbled out the clock just over half court, he was met by Cissoko. The two-way forward provided 28 minutes in the win, drawing three offensive fouls and hitting a pivotal fourth-quarter 3-pointer. Now he was flexing his arms and bumping chests with Grant as the buzzer sounded.
“We were just saying ‘finally,’” Cissoko told Blazer’s Edge about the moment. “… That was a tough game from both teams. It was great.”
