Trail Blazers start fast, still lose 126-106 at Golden State Warriors

The Portland Trail Blazers overcame their propensity for starting slowly Saturday night at the Golden State Warriors, but the results were still the same.

The Blazers won the first quarter 30-23 but it was all downhill from there. The Warriors dominated the second quarter 34-16 to build a 57-46 halftime lead. From there, they held the Blazers at bay and eventually put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.

“We got out to a good start, which is something we’ve struggled with for a while,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters at the Chase Center. “I thought we did a really good job defensively early on. Scrambling, kind of getting around.”

But a couple of Warriors offensive rebounds in the final minutes of the first quarter, Billups said, hurt his team’s momentum.

“It really changed the game for us and in the second quarter we turned it over a little bit, but they just kicked our butts so bad on the rebonds,” Billups said

The Warriors ended up with 13 offensive rebounds leading to 15 second-chance points compared with eight for the Blazers.

“You play a pretty good possession of defense and then don’t come up with the ball, those are some deflating plays,” Billups said. “They took it to us. They really did.”

The Warriors out-rebounded the Blazers 49-30.

For the most part, the Blazers played a solid game. Anfernee Simons led the team with 25 points while hitting 7 of 13 threes. Malcolm Brogdon added 17 points and 12 assists.

But the Warriors, now 5-1 since Draymond Green’s suspension, were able to overcome poor three-point shooting (30.3%) and 18 turnovers by shooting 76% on two-point attempts.

Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting and Stephen Curry scored 27 on 11-of-18 shooting. They also combined to go 8 of 17 on three-pointers. Rookie Brandin Podziemski went 7 of 12 for 15 points. Their combined level of efficiency proved too much for the Blazers to overcome.

“I thought we did a really good job of locking into what we were trying to do defensively,” Billups said. “That got us off to a good start, and we just couldn’t sustain. That team, they just kept wearing on you.”

It didn’t help that the Blazers could only turn the Warriors’ 18 turnovers into 12 points.

“We’ve got to be able to do a better job of when we do get turnovers, we got to be able to convert,” Billups said. “Those are big opportunities for us, and also it’s a deflating play for them.