It was a horrific first half. It had all the signs of a low-effort, lame weekday loss from the Golden State Warriors.
Then the third quarter happened.
Chaos. A three-touchdown deficit erased. By the end of it, the Warriors had come up clutch for the second-straight game and secured a 123-105 win, their third in a row. It was their largest comeback win of the season.
Third quarter magic began with defense
It’s hard to overstate just how bleak things seemed in the first half.
Players like Drew Eubanks (…who?) were giving Golden State serious trouble.
But the Warriors came out strong in the second. It wasn’t exactly clinical, but it was sparked, as most things are, by defensive effort from Draymond Green (and Kevon Looney). In his return from a knee contusion, he was effective in every facet.
They started to defend and rebound much more effectively and proactively. More than anything, the intensity picked up. That was lacking — glaringly — early.
When Portland threatened to get back in the game, Green came up with clutch defensive possessions. And while he’s still maddeningly blind to the basket at times, he got involved offensively when he had to.
He finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Green’s effort in particular started to stifle Portland.
The Blazers couldn’t hit a shot, and the Warriors started taking easy layups at the rim, getting in transition and executing more regularly. They finished with 40 second half points in the paint, as many as Portland scored in the entire second half.
That combination of defensive effort and offensive awareness sparked a nonsensical 18-2 run to start the second half.
It began with back-to-back fouls and a turnover from an apoplectic Damian Lillard. He, and his teammates, unraveled. A 23-point Blazers lead was suddenly cut to a 4-point deficit.
Lillard then picked up his fourth foul, requesting a challenge from head coach Chauncey Billups, who obliged. The challenge was unsuccessful, leaving the Blazers star with just two fouls to spare over the final 17 minutes.
Klay Thompson immediately hit a baseline, fall-away jumper to cut the deficit to two points.
With three minutes remaining, Lillard headed to the bench. This outrageous dunk from Kuminga followed:
And with less than two minutes in the quarter, Thompson, who was ice cold in the first half, hit a lead-taking three. Chase Center erupted.
They finished the quarter — courtesy of a Draymond Green free throw off a behind-the-back pass from Thompson —with a five-point lead. Golden State outscored the Blazers 39-17 in that quarter and held the Blazers to 40 second-half points.
Poole, Klay snap out of early rut, and DiVincenzo stays hot
That third quarter wasn’t an isolated effort, because the team’s two most viable scorers, well, scored. Oh, and so, too, did Donte DiVincenzo. They kept rolling into the fourth to the point that they turned a blowout into a blowout.
In these last few games, DiVincenzo is making it evident he will be far too expensive for the Warriors to retain, at least on his player option. He’s a capable ball handler who penetrates without doing too much. His defensive acumen is obvious.
And his scoring, especially as of late, has been crucial. On Tuesday, he tallied an efficient 21 points (8-of-11, 5-of-7 from deep), 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
He was the Warriors’ third-leading scorer, though.
It all emanated from Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson.
Poole actually had an injury concern in the first half, when Blazers players went crashing into the Warriors bench. He went into the locker room and came back with a left knee wrap, per Anthony Slater. It didn’t seem to have an affect.
He was at his most outrageous in the second half, launching from ill-advised angles and distances, spinning like a perpetually teetering top, and somehow making almost all of it work.
When he gets hot, it’s the sort of thing that can make second halves like the one on Tuesday possible. After a 3-for-10 start, he finished with 29 points on 7-of-14 shooting, adding 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
But as usual, energy sticks most prominently to Thompson. When he starts going, things are usually going well. When he got hot in the third and fourth, it looked easy. He had 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.
Damian Lillard defense
After a 71-point explosion a couple nights ago, the Warriors adopted a “defend Damian Lillard and only Damian Lillard” approach.
In the first half, the ole box-and-one defense was disastrous.
They were slow to switch on everything. No wing defense was played. Close outs? No thank you.
Lillard was 5-of-8 to start, and the rest of the Portland offense was flowing, en route to 65 first-half points.
But as Green pointed to in his postgame interview, there were signs of defensive promise at the end of the first half. He credited coach Kenny Atkinson for an excellent defensive gameplan. The box-and-one, and some other adjustments, started to work.
That was apparent in the way Lillard went cold. He was getting airspace closed, and couldn’t find the outlets he was able to early on. After that promising start, Lillard was 4-of-13 for the rest of the game, scoring just 6 points in the second half.
The trio of fouls he had, along with a turnover, felt like the turning point of the game. He got flustered and the Warriors capitalized, then expanded their lead.
While the Warriors are at their most dangerous when they can hit threes with impunity, it has to start with defense, especially with a limited talent pool.
