Warriors vs Trail Blazers Preview: Game recognize game

Game information

Who: Golden State Warriors (51-14) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (39-26)

When: 7:00pm PST - Friday, March 9th, 2018

Where: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon

How to watch: CSNBA

How to listen: 95.7 The Game

Blog Buddy: Blazer’s Edge

Injury Report

Warriors: Andre Iguodala (wrist), doubtful, Jordan Bell (ankle sprain), doubtful, Patrick McCaw (left wrist fracture), out, Stephen Curry, (ankle), out

Trail Blazers: Moe Harkless (knee), day-to-day

Warriors have caught fire after the break

They have yet to lose coming out of the all-star break, reeling off seven consecutive victories. The Warriors have managed to keep pace with the Houston Rockets who they currently trail by just a half game in the Western Conference standings.

On the surface, the team is 7-0, but there has been some slippage during this streak. The Warriors nearly handed over a win to the Atlanta Hawks a few nights ago after allowing the Hawks to close a 12 point deficit to two points in the finals minutes of the game. The Warriors also gave up an early 21 point lead to the Brooklyn Nets and brought them back in the game.

Even against the Spurs last night, the Warriors seemed careless during stretches and allowed the Spurs to capitalize off of turnovers. If it wasn’t for Kevin Durant’s heroic efforts to end the game, the Warriors could have easily lost that game.

Sometimes I wonder if the Warriors purposely run up the score in order to blow the lead to give themselves a challenge to come back late in the game.

Trail Blazers are currently the third seed in the West...WHAT?!

As of the end of Thursday, the Blazers sit in the third seed in the Western Conference right behind the Warriors. Yup, you read that right! Granted, that is 12 games behind the Warriors but it’s still impressive. The Blazers have managed to reel off eight straight victories and are also undefeated since the all-star break.

The 8-0 streak happened to start against the Warriors back on February 14th when Durant dropped 50 points in a loss. The Warriors happened to start their 7-0 streak after their loss to the Blazers. One of these winning streaks will have to come to an end tonight.

Is Damian Lillard at least in the conversation for MVP?

James Harden has a firm stranglehold on the MVP race and the odds are in favor of him winning it at this point, but in the last few weeks both Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard have been too impressive to ignore.

In the last 10 games, the Blazers are 9-1 and Lillard has scored 35+ points in seven out of ten of those contests. That includes two 40+ games and a 50 point game against the Kings in which he didn’t play in the 4th quarter. It may not be enough, but let’s not forget that Russell Westbrook stole the MVP from Harden last year with his strong finish.

No Curry for this heated matchup

Curry has already been ruled out after aggravating his ankle against the Spurs. This is the second time in the last week that he has suffered through ankle issues. Warriors fans are all too familiar with the sights of Curry in his early years struggling to stay on the court and multiple ankle surgeries.

Let’s all hope that this isn’t serious and just a minor tweak (prayer hands).

Four bar Friday

Damian Lillard is well known for his lyrical ability when off the court. He has promoted a tradition on twitter called four bar Friday, where his followers will post a video or a quick verse online with the hashtag #fourbarfriday. As the Warriors are playing Portland on a Friday, it’s absolutely necessary that we come up with our own verse:

The Dubs coming off a back to back

No Curry in this one; I think I’m going have a panic attack

Another loss at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers?

Nope, the Dubs taking this one 115 >110, alligators