Trail Blazers at Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are at the point where they are striving for perfection and can find themselves unhappy even after double-digit wins. The Portland Trail Blazers, who visit the Warriors on Saturday, are just unhappy in general with five consecutive road losses, capped by a 132-120 setback at Denver on Thursday.
Golden State cruised to a 103-90 victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday and remarkably handed out 36 assists on the first 36 made field goals, but coach Steve Kerr believes the team is not playing to its capabilities. "I didn't think there was much purpose to anything we did at either end of the floor," Kerr told reporters. "We moved the ball because our guys are instinctive with that and unselfish and enjoy playing together. So, ball movement was good, but no purpose offensively. Very little interest defensively." The Trail Blazers could be accused of having very little interest defensively as well after allowing Denver to shoot 51.2 percent from the floor and knock down 15 3-pointers to mark the third time in just over three weeks an opponent put up at least 130 on their defense. "To give up 74 points (in the first half) - granted, I thought Denver shot the ball really well, obviously from three - I don't know if they necessarily felt our presence defensively as much as they needed to," Portland coach Terry Stotts told reporters.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, CSN Northwest (Portland), CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (13-15): Portland was coming off a 114-95 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder when it let up against the Nuggets and fell to 5-11 on the road with games still to come against the Warriors and Sacramento Kings on the trip. "We weren't as physical, we weren't as present on the ball, we didn't have much of an impact on the defensive end," star point guard Damian Lillard told reporters. "They felt comfortable, they made uncontested shots. And when we picked our energy up and our effort up, they had themselves going." The Trail Blazers already learned what happens when you don't match energy with Golden State while suffering a 127-104 home loss to the Warriors on Nov. 1.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (23-4): Golden State leads the NBA in assists average (31.4) and handed out at least 30 in 19 different games, going 18-1 in those contests. The Warriors became the first team this season to record assists on over 90 percent of its field goals when they finished with 41 on 45 field goals Thursday. "No one really holds the ball on this team," shooting guard Klay Thompson told reporters. "It’s nice because the ball's always moving. ... That’s the beauty of our team. No one cares about the numbers."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers C Mason Plumlee is averaging 18.3 points and is 23-of-34 from the field in the last three games.
2. Warriors PF David West (knee) left Thursday's game and is questionable for Saturday.
3. Golden State took the last three regular season meetings while averaging 130.3 points.