Warriors at Trail Blazers
Klay Thompson is looking like a prized investment so far and the Golden State Warriors will continue hoping he pays dividends Sunday when they take on the host Portland Trail Blazers. Thompson, who signed a four-year, $70-million contract extension Friday, scored a career-high 41 points in a blowout win Saturday night against the Lakers. Portland, meanwhile, is still bristling from its 103-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday.
The Trail Blazers know what it’s like to get torched by a 40-point game as they gave up that many points to Rudy Gay of the Kings in their last game. The difficulty with Golden State is its two-pronged attack of Thompson and Stephen Curry, who’s coming off a 31-point performance against the Lakers, marking just the second time the duo has scored at least 30 in the same game. Portland All-Star point guard Damian Lillard will be looking to get things going after shooting 7-for-23 through the first two games.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, CSN Bay Area (Golden State), CSN Northwest (Portland)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (2-0): Forward David Lee has missed the first two games with a hamstring injury and it’s looking like he’ll skip the Portland game as well. Draymond Green might be a better matchup for Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge anyway. Green helped limit Gay to 14 points on 5-for-15 shooting in Golden State’s season-opening win against the Kings.
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (1-1): Along with the shooting struggles of Lillard, small forward Nicolas Batum has been below average, shooting 8-for-22 and failing to have an impact on the boards. He made a season-high five 3-pointers and finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds when these teams last met in March, but missed a tying free-throw attempt with 5.8 seconds left and the Trail Blazers lost by one. Chris Kaman is looking like a solid pickup for the Trail Blazers so far, producing identical stat lines of 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting and six rebounds in each game.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. All five starters for the Trail Blazers averaged double figures in scoring against the Warriors last season.
2. Golden State G Brandon Rush was listed as probable against the Lakers but sat out his second straight game with a back injury.
3. The Warriors are 8-1 in games in which Thompson scores at least 30 points, the only loss coming last November against the Trail Blazers