Trail Blazers at Warriors
The Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers are both coming off embarrassing defeats, but while one could be considered a blip, the other is becoming a pattern. The defending-champion Warriors will try to break that pattern and snap a four-game slide when they host the Trail Blazers on Friday.
Portland was playing the second night of a back-to-back after beating the New York Knicks 118-114 on Tuesday and had no bounce in a 143-100 loss at Milwaukee the next night. "It was a tough start, obviously we knew it was going to be a long trip," Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard told reporters. "Dropped the first two against quality teams (the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers), teams that can beat you. We bounced back and win two games, which is what we wanted to do, then you come here, arguably the best team in the East on their floor and we were a step slow." The Warriors failed to win on a three-game trek through Texas only to come home and get flattened by the Oklahoma City Thunder 123-95 on Wednesday. "It wasn't pretty tonight, and it hasn't been these last four games," shooting guard Klay Thompson told reporters. "But if you want to take a positive out of tonight, it's the first time we've ever lost four games under (head coach) Steve (Kerr). That's pretty amazing when you think about it."
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Northwest (Portland), NBCS Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (12-6): Portland is making the final stop of a six-game, 10-day trip at Golden State but was not ready to use fatigue as an excuse for Wednesday's performance, in which the team shot 36.2 percent from the floor. "We're not the first team to go on a trip like this and it's not our first time," Lillard told reporters. "We aren't going to lean on that and make an excuse about being tired. It's early in the season. We haven't even played 20 games yet. There were a lot of things that we could've done to be much better, whether we were tired or not." Lillard is averaging 27.6 points on the trip, including a 40-point outing in a win at Washington on Sunday.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (12-7): Golden State is dealing with injuries to two All-Star players in Stephen Curry (groin) and Draymond Green (toe) along with some personality clashes among teammates. "Our guys, they're not gonna get too discouraged," Kerr told reporters. "They know, especially the guys who have been in this league for a long time, they know the drill. We haven't felt this a whole lot here the last few years - maybe once or twice - but this is part of being in the league. You're banged up, you lose games. You just fight your way out of it and get healthy and you keep going, and things'll turn." Green is day-to-day while Curry is expected to miss several more games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Trail Blazers SF Maurice Harkless (knee) returned from a 12-game absence on Wednesday and scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting in 13 minutes.
2. Golden State SF Kevin Durant is 2-of-22 from 3-point range over the last five games.
3. Portland took the final two meetings last season after dropping seven in a row in the series.