Without four All-Star players, but with motivated and unknown youngsters, Golden State Warriors posted their first home win of the season. Steve Kerr’s boys outplayed Portland Trail Blazers, 127-118, and proved even without their top stars, this team can compete despite all doubts.
Rookie forward from Villanova, Eric Paschall poured 34 points on Blazers, and added 13 rebounds, completely ripping apart visitors’ defense. The spectators in the Chase Arena started chanting something which they did very frequently in the past.
“MVP, MVP !!!”
“That was a little crazy. For a rookie you hear MVP, that’s a `wow’ moment,” Paschall said. “I thank Dub Nation for believing in me.”
Pachall delivered half of his points in the first quarter when he missed only one of seven shots from the field. Overall, the rookie was 11 of 19 from the game, and 4 of 6 from behind the arc. Plus, all of his 10 free-throw attempts were successful.
But he wasn’t the only one who impressed last night. Several other guys who didn’t have too much room to play before simply exploded, which is why the Warriors eventually won the contest.
Ky Bowman, the undrafted rookie from Boston College, had 19 points and 8 assists. He was organizing the game superbly, looking like a veteran. Jordan Poole had 16 buckers, Willie Cauley-Stein 10.
The bench of the hosts was also solid, with Damion Lee delivering 18 points, shooting 10 for 11 from the free-throw line, while Alec Burks added 13.
Golden State was up throughout most of this match, and the youngsters did well against the Western Conference finalists who were eliminated by their teammates last year. Many expected to see cruel revenge, but it turned out differently.
Hosts were better in the first period, but Blazers replied and headed for the break with a three-point lead. Coming into the fourth sequence, GSW was trying to pull away, and at one moment, they were up seven points; yet the visitors reached that too, some seven minutes to go.
In less than three minutes, Kerr’s crew made a 12-0 surge that knocked out Portland, and the crowd at Chase Center could celebrate for the first time this season.
“Just a fantastic effort by the whole group. Everybody that we put in came in and gave us big minutes,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It was just fun. It’s a fun group to coach because they’re young and hungry, and they were fighting like crazy out there the whole game. That’s a good team they just beat. It was a great night for us.”
His players recorded 28 assists, unlike the guests who had just 16. Lillard played alone without too much of a help from other teammates, and eventually, his 39 points didn’t mean anything. Hassan Whiteside added 22 points and 11 boards, while CJ McCollum had modest 14 buckets on 34 minutes.
The Trail Blazers are staying in California but change the city. Dame and the boys are heading for LA to meet with the Clippers. Meanwhile, the Warriors travel to Oklahoma to try to redeem for a catastrophic loss from a couple of days ago.
