The Portland Trail Blazers (29-32) blew a lead once again, this week’s iteration coming 123-105 on the road at Golden State (32-30).
Portland led 41-27 after the first quarter and held on tight to go into the break up 65-48 on the defending champs, who were still missing Steph Curry. Jusuf Nurkic, Anfernee Simons and Justise Winslow remain out for the Blazers.
Damian Lillard wasn’t quite on fire as the last time he played, which was Sunday when he scored 71 points against Houston, but 19 points at the break is still solid. Jerami Grant had 14 at the break as well.
The third quarter changed everything though as the Warriors outscored the Blazers 39-17 behind 12 points a piece for Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole.
That carried over into the fourth where Jonathan Kuminga and Donte DiVincenzo helped close the game, scoring 19 points between the two to help close the door on Portland.
The Blazers scored only 40 points in the second half after they scored 41 alone in the first quarter.
Lillard finished with a team-high 25 points while Grant was right behind with 24. Matisse Thybulle had 15 points, Cam Reddish chipped in 10 and Shaedon Sharpe had 13 off the bench.
Poole paced the game with 29 points while Thompson chipped in 23. DiVincenzo had 21, Kuminga had 16 off the bench and Draymond Green had 12 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
It’s another blown opportunity for Portland who continues to find itself looking up in the standings, sitting in 11th place in the Western Conference.
But despite the continued trend of losing games in the second half, the Blazers still remain a half game back of the 10th spot, held by New Orleans. Portland is 2.5 games back of the No. 6 seed held by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Coming in on Wednesday night are those Pelicans, giving Portland another chance to make some moves in the standings. The game is set to tipoff from the Moda Center at 7 p.m.
