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The Portland Trail Blazers won a hard-fought battle against the defending champs Golden State Warriors with a final scoreline of 110-109.
They played gritty, they played hard, and they made sure that they didn’t give Golden State any chances to capitalise on their offensive arsenal, and take the game away from their hands.
On the other hand, Golden State’s struggles continue as they try to find the right match to involve their superstars, and get them back into top form.
With this win, the Portland Trail Blazers are now ranked 6th in the Western Conference with a record of 20-15, while the Warriors dropped from 1st spot to 2nd in the West with a record of 23-13.
With all that in mind, here are the top 3 points from this match -
#3 Free throw problems for Golden State
The Warriors are the 2nd best free throw shooting team in the league. They shoot well over 80% from the charity stripe. But today was not the day for them from the line. They often looked lost and it didn't look like they wanted to make those shots.
They took 15 free throws and made only 6 of them. This haunted them later in the game, when they had to go into overtime and lose a heart wrenching game by just a single point.
On the other hand, the Trail Blazers took care of the basics well and shot 21 of their total 23 free throws. They’re also one of the best teams from the stripe as they’re ranked 3rd just behind Golden State.
The Warriors took things too easy from the beginning and forgot about the basics, the fundamentals of the game, such as shooting well from the free throw line.
#2 Cold streak for Thompson continues
If Klay Thompson was half as good as he is capable of being, then the Warriors would have swept away this game. He was getting some of the easiest looks, which he almost always converts, but sadly for him today, this wasn’t the case.
He often looked lost and wasn’t able to connect on any of his shots. The Warriors were looking for a 3rd guy to come up and score for them but nobody stepped up, including Thompson, who has been having a cold spell of late.
Thompson has been averaging 20.9 ppg, on 43.6% shooting from the field and 33.3% from the 3-point line. Hopefully, things will soon change for Thompson for the better.
#1 The Portland Trail Blazers trio
Portland often wins when their trio of Lillard, McCollum and Nurkic play well and fill up the stat sheet, while also coming up with crucial plays like the final 3-point shot by Lillard or the shot before that by McCollum over Green.
Today was no different as these three led their team to a victory over the Warriors. They held their nerves in overtime and made sure that they defended well to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry in the final minutes.
Lillard scored 21 points along with the winning shot, McCollum scored 24 points, and Nurkic dominated inside the paint and came up with 27 points.
In their next game, the Portland Trail Blazers will again face the Golden State Warriors, but this time in the Moda Center, where they would look to win again in front of their home crowd.
