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When Steph Curry walked into the Bill King Interview Room, he let out an exasperated sigh. He did the same when he left the podium. Then, walking down the stairs to the Warriors’ locker room, the two-time MVP’s scream was audible for anyone within 50 feet.
“You feel like you played well enough to win, but nothing to show for it,” Curry said.
Curry scored 38 points, but the Warriors were outrebounded by 20 in a 127-123 loss to the Portland Blazers without their starting backcourt of Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson. Golden State (9-9) is no longer undefeated at home, nor when it wins the turnover battle.
The Warriors arrived back home from their six-game, nine-day road trip around 4 a.m. on Thursday. Friday marked the start of their first homestand of the season, a five-game stretch in which they’ll stage at least three practices. It’s a chance for the Warriors to settle in after a grueling five-week schedule, but they burned their first opportunity to rack up a win by getting destroyed on the glass, 52 to 32, and allowing the Blazers to create practically any shot they wanted.
Deni Avdija, who’s playing at an All-Star level through a month, racked up 26 points and 13 assists, getting to his spots, navigating double-teams, and spraying passes all over the court.
“We’re just not guarding nobody,” Jimmy Butler said. “From what I can tell, I haven’t been here long, but that’s never been the formula here. To win a championship, you’ve got to take each and every matchup personal. Yeah, help’s going to be there, but we got to do way better guarding.”
Defense hasn’t been the main issue for the Warriors this season. Even after giving up 127 to Portland at home, Golden State ranks 10th in defensive rating.
But the way the Blazers punished the Warriors on the offensive boards was troubling.
Straight-line drives from the perimeter opened up lobs, kickout passes to open shooters, and putback opportunities at the rim. The Blazers took their shots almost exclusively in the paint or beyond the 3-point arc.
Centers Donovan Clingan (22 points, 10 rebounds) and Robert Williams III (8 points, 11 rebounds) each had their way in the paint. The Blazers average 15.4 offensive rebounds per game. Against the smaller Warriors, they corralled 15 in the third quarter alone.
Over and over again, the Blazers either shedded poor Warriors boxouts or simply outleaped smaller players for offensive rebounds. On one play, Curry closed out to Caleb Love but didn’t put a body onto him, allowing the guard to collect his own miss and get to the foul line.
Despite Curry hitting all five of his 3-pointers en route to 18 points in the second quarter, the Warriors never took control of the game because of how Portland crashed the glass. The Blazers finished with 28 second-chance points.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr tried to counter Portland’s size advantage by playing bigger lineups, pairing two of Draymond Green, Al Horford, and Quinten Post together more frequently. He even dusted off Trayce Jackson-Davis for three minutes.
But Horford was unavailable in the fourth quarter due to right hamstring tightness, limiting Kerr’s options. He ended up playing Gary Payton II 17 minutes, sometimes in four-guard lineups.
The Blazers are certainly not the only team with more size than the Warriors. Over the years, they’ve mitigated deficits in height with speed, finesse, and smarts. That certainly wasn’t the case on Friday.
Teams will surely look at the tape of this game and see an opportunity to crash the offensive glass hard against Golden State. It’s easy to imagine the Rockets — who rank first in the league with a 38% offensive rebounding rate — licking their chops ahead of next Wednesday’s matchup at Chase Center.
“It’s a concern,” Kerr said.
This week of rest and practice time gives the Warriors a chance to recollect themselves and gauge where they’re at. Kerr said he’ll consider inserting Post back into the starting lineup next to Green for more of a rebounding presence.
To rebound in the win column, the Warriors will have to do much better than -20 in the rebounding column.
“With that type of discrepancy, you can play as hard as you want to, fly around, but the best offense and the most demoralizing thing for a defense is 20 seconds of good defense then an easy putback or a second, third opportunity,” Curry said. “We know we’re small out there at times, but we got to play bigger than we are.”