Warriors 136, Trail Blazers 111
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Stephen Curry scored 14 of his game-high 39 points in the third quarter Sunday night, helping the Golden State Warriors pull away from the Portland Trail Blazers en route to a 136-111 victory.
Playing for the first time since having their 54-game, home-court winning streak ended by Boston on Friday night, the Warriors (69-8) kept their record perfect in games following losses with an eighth straight win.
Golden State won those games by an average of 15.0 points.
No team has ever finished a season without at least one set of consecutive losses.
The win shrunk the Warriors' magic number for clinching the top seeding in the Western Conference playoffs to two. They moved 4 1/2 games ahead of idle San Antonio (64-12).
Curry connected on nine of the Warriors' 18 3-pointers, as the club ran its season total to 1,013 in becoming the first NBA team to go over 1,000 in a single season.
Curry, who made 13 of his shots in all, nine of his 13 3-point attempts and found time for six rebounds and seven assists, had his hands full in a point guard showdown with Portland's Damian Lillard, who poured in 38 points.
Lillard connected on 13 of his 27 shots and four of his nine 3-point attempts.
Curry had the better supporting case on this night, however, as Draymond Green recorded a 22-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, and Klay Thompson buried two 3-pointers on a 21-point night.
Green's rebound and assist totals were game-highs.
The Warriors shot 56.8 percent from the field and were even better from beyond the 3-point arc, hitting 18 of 30 (60.0percent).
CJ McCollum had 18 points and Moe Harkless pulled a team-high eight rebounds to go with 15 points for the Trail Blazers (41-37), who concluded a 4-0 homestand win a 110-93 win over Miami on Saturday night.
The Portland loss helped tighten the five-team battle for the final four playoff spots in the West. Memphis (41-36), which lost to Orlando, remained a half-game ahead of the Trail Blazers, with the next three teams -- Dallas (39-38), Utah (39-38) and Houston (38-39) -- all gaining ground following wins.
Portland led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter before Golden State got the better of the middle two periods by a 70-52 count to pull away.
Curry drilled three 3-pointers in a 49-second flurry midway through the third quarter, extending the Warriors' lead to 85-73.
He added a fourth 3-pointer late in the period as Golden State increased the lead to as many as 14 before having relatively smooth sailing the rest of the way.
NOTES: Warriors C Festus Ezeli (knee surgery) not only returned from a 31-game absence but was thrust into the starting lineup in place of Andrew Bogut (bruised ribs), who got hurt in Friday's loss to Boston. The start was Ezeli's 12th of the season, the absence Bogut's 11th. ... Asked before the game if he were "resting" Bogut, Warriors coach Steve Kerr insisted, "If they are a little banged up, we'll sit them. Andrew is a little banged up." ... The Warriors need to win their remaining three home games and also win at San Antonio on April 10 in order to equal the best single-season home record in NBA history. The Boston Celtics went 40-1 at home in 1985-86. The Spurs are 39-0 at home this season. ... In their quest not only to clinch a playoff berth but also to move up as high as possible in the Western seedings, the Trail Blazers will face three teams already eliminated from postseason contention (Sacramento, Minnesota and Denver) among their last four opponents.