Game Information
Golden State Warriors (2-1) at Portland Trailblazers (2-1)
How to watch?
Date: Tuesday, November 1st, 2016
Location: Moda Center - Portland, OR
Time: 7:00pm PST
TV: CSN Bay Area/NBA TV Radio: 95.7 THE GAME
The Warriors finish up their three-game road trip by heading back to Portland for the first time since this happened:
What... you forgot about this already? Between all the stories of a slow start to the season, collapses in the playoffs, etc... we forget the Warriors use to have a lot of fun breaking team’s hearts.
Ready for Golden State up in Portland will be a Blazers team who remembers these highlights just as well as Warriors fans. Damian Lillard should have every matchup with these two teams highlighted on his calendar, ready to bring revenge back on Curry & crew. Portland has come out of the gate with wins against the Jazz and Nuggets (an overtime thriller last Saturday punctuated with a Lillard game-winner). Portland is already scoring the 2nd most points per game in the association (averaging 111 per contest), however is in the bottom third of the league in points allowed. They provide many matchup challenges for Golden State with their hybrid forwards that attack the offensive glass such as Ed Davis and Al-Farouq Aminu. Lillard and backcourt mate C.J. McCollum also punish the Warriors every chance they get.
On the flip side, the Warriors are coming off a shaky win in Phoenix. The good news? They did play one of their best halves of basketball to close out the game, both on the defensive end and finally on the offensive end with Kevin Durant dominating the scoring. Have they finally righted the ship? This will be a huge game for momentum, especially heading into the big matchup in Oakland against the Thunder on Thursday. If they force Portland into playing small in order to match the speed of Curry, Klay Thompson and Durant, this allows Draymond Green and the Death Lineup to take advantage.
On the injury front, Patrick McCaw still remains out until at least Thursday with a sprained ankle, and Damian Jones remains out recovering from off-season surgery. Portland is still without Warriors favorite Festus Ezeli, who is still healing up from knee trouble.
Predictions
This one will be a close one, but since I am a homer I’m taking Golden State to find a way through this one with a close victory, 110-105.