The Warriors dominate defensively in crunch time and beat the Trail Blazers 118-112.
Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson have huge nights, Donte DiVincenzo comes through in the clutch, and the Warriors' small-ball lineup puts the Blazers to bed with a 16-2 run to finish the game.
Because I am a lifelong Warriors fan who lived through the dark days of the late ’90s and early 2000s, doom is my default. Four championships in the last 8 years haven’t been able to rewire my brain’s inner workings, so when games start to feel like they’re getting away from the Warriors, it’s hard for me to feel confident about their chances, logic be damned. In a night game like last night’s when the Warriors are down several players and clearly running on fumes, finding hope is even harder for a doomer like me.
The Warriors looked dead in the water in the third quarter of this improbable win against the Trail Blazers. Consider the context: the Warriors were missing their two bench centers, JaMychal Green and James Wiseman; Andrew Wiggins missed his 13th straight game; Patrick Baldwin Jr., who played big minutes two nights ago, played last night for the Santa Cruz Warriors and was on a minutes restriction. All of this is to say, there were no reinforcements coming tonight when the Warriors were getting beat up on the glass If the Warriors were going to win tonight’s game, they’d have to drag themselves to the victory line with what they had.
Somehow, the Warriors found the mental fortitude to survive anemic frontcourt depth and dead legs to shut off the water on the Trail Blazers’ crunch-time offense and win their fourth straight game. Tonight’s game, of course, was a home game, which moved the Warriors’ home record to 16-2 and their win-loss record on the season to 19-18. The Warriors’ dominance at home made sense when Steph Curry was healthy and while their Christmas-day win against the Grizzlies without Steph was quite impressive, the additional motivation of stomping on the Grizzlies made that victory make a more little sense.
What the Warriors have done in their last three games is seriously impressive. In three straight games, the Warriors have closed games with Jonathan Kuminga and Draymond Green in the frontcourt flanked by Jordan Poole and Donte DiVincenzo in the backcourt and dominated with their defense. When Poole and Green checked back into the game for closing minutes at the 4:41 mark, the Warriors trailed by 8 points. In closing minutes, Draymond Green was typically excellent on defense, which is what Draymond does, and he made the big rebound at the 2:15 mark that led to the Jonathan Kuminga dunk that gave the Warriors their first fourth-quarter lead, and he made the block and outlet pass that led to Klay Thompson’s huge translation three at the 1:25 mark.
But I want to talk about DiVincenzo and Kuminga for a second. While Donte’s intangible impact was strong for most of the game, he was 0/4 from three before he put the Blazers to sleep with this dagger three, which came after a huge steal on Damian Lillard:
DiVincenzo finished the game with 9 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals on 4/11 shooting. Donte actually shot 3/6 on two-point shots — a welcome improvement — but in the minutes that Jordan Poole sat, the Warriors’ offense was basically devoid of crunch-time options if it meant Donte had to create his own shot. With all that said, Donte has been so good for the Warriors since coming back from injury and the Warriors’ second unit will be in very good hands when Steph Curry is healthy and Donte never has to play without either he or Jordan Poole again.
Through his first 21 minutes of play, Jonathan Kuminga picked up 5 fouls and got yanked late in the third quarter after possession of inattentive defense that led to what felt like a back-breaking Trail Blazers offensive rebound and free throws. But in crunch time, Kuminga amped up his intensity and focus and was part of some of the Warriors’ biggest defensive sequences, including this possession where he defended Damian Lillard without fouling:
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