The Golden State Warriors begin the schedule-equalizing portion of their season Friday night when they get a revenge matchup at home against the Portland Trail Blazers in an NBA Cup game.
The Warriors will play more than two straight home games for the first time this season after concluding a nine-day, six-game trip that vaulted them to the league lead in road games with 12. They’ve gone 4-8 in those games after a 3-3 trip in which they won three of the first four.
Golden State now embarks on a five-game homestand that will equal the number of home dates the team has had this season. Three of those five earlier games were standalones, while the only previous two-game homestand was scheduled as a back-to-back.
The Warriors visited Portland on the second night of a home/road back-to-back in the first week of the season and suffered a 139-119 defeat on a night when the Trail Blazers shot 53.8% from the field and 47.1% on 3-pointers.
Golden State will also face Utah, Houston, New Orleans and Oklahoma City at home before its next road outing on Dec. 4 at Philadelphia.
“I think we’ll be grateful at the end of the year that this isn’t the stretch that we have at the end of the season,” seldom-used backup Pat Spencer assured reporters after being pressed into a career-high 32 minutes in Wednesday’s 110-96 loss at Miami.
“We like where we’re at,” he continued. “(We’re grateful) to be where we’re at with the number of games that we played (and), knock on wood, have a really healthy team at this point in the season.”
Ironically, the Warriors (9-8, 1-1) will attempt to improve on their .500 NBA Cup record with a generally rested roster. Veterans Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler III, Draymond Green and Al Horford were all given the night off Wednesday, and Jonathan Kuminga may be ready to return from “bilateral patellar tendonitis” to open the homestand after he sat out the final four games of the trip.
The Trail Blazers (6-9, 1-1) also split their first two games in West Group C of the Cup. All five teams have identical records with two contests remaining. Portland handed Denver a 109-107 defeat in their Cup opener on Halloween.
That improved the surprising Trail Blazers, who lost coach Chauncey Billups to suspension Oct. 23 after he was arrested as part of a federal gambling investigation, to 4-2 at the time. But they have since lost seven of nine, including four in a row as they embark on a three-game trip.
Two defeats during their current skid were nailbiters — a 138-133 overtime loss at Dallas on Sunday and Wednesday’s 122-121 home heart-breaker at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, who got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Nikola Vucevic.
Interim coach Tiago Splitter finds himself agreeing with the Warriors’ Steve Kerr that a combination of the league’s faster pace and a relentless early schedule is taking a toll on his club.
Knowing Damian Lillard will miss the season following Achilles surgery, the Trail Blazers currently are without speedy point guard Scoot Henderson (torn hamstring) and defensive ace Matisse Thybulle (thumb surgery), while regulars Jrue Holiday (strained calf), Shaedon Sharpe (strained calf) and Jerami Grant (illness) have all missed recent games.
“It’s difficult to play the way we want to play,” Splitter declared earlier this week. “We don’t have the energy to play fast. We’re getting slower and slower. We’re having to play guys that are in development roles right now.”
–Field Level Media
