Did you have it being the Portland Trail Blazers? Well it was the Trail Blazers who handed the Golden State Warriors their 5th loss of the season 137-105 behind 51 points from Damien Lillard. The Trail Blazers jumped out to a 42-31 lead after the 1st quarter and never looked back. The 137 points were the most by a Golden State opponent this season, and the 32-point margin of defeat was the Warriors most lopsided loss this season. While Lillard’s and the Trail Blazers offensive numbers will be what everyone see’s it was there defense that stepped up and helped them get this win. Golden State had 20 turnovers in the game with 13 of them coming in the 3rd quarter alone. Lillard made 9 of the 12 3-point shots he took and was 18 for 28 from the field overall to get to that 51 point total. C.J. McCollum added 21 points for the Trail Blazers. McCollum went 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line and was 9 of 18 from the field in the game. Mason Plumlee and Gerald Henderson (off the bench) each added 12 points while Maurice Harkless had 11 points and tied for the team lead in rebounds at 8 with Ed Davis. It was McCollum and Lillard who ended up tied for the team lead in assists with 7 apiece. The Trail Blazers actually made a better percentage of their shots from behind the 3-point line than they did from the field. Portland made 17 of the 30 (56.7%) 3-pointers they shot while they where 52 of 97 (53.6%) from the field overall. Stephen Curry led Golden State in scoring with 31 points, but more importantly may be the fact that he played just over 26 minutes in the game. Klay Thompson added 23 points while Draymond Green had 14 points and was the team leader in rebounds with 12 and assists with 8, but also had 9 turnovers in the game. Mareese Spreights was the only other Golden State player to score in double figures with 10 points.
Lillard became the first player to have 50 points, 7 assists and 6 steals since the steal became a statistic in 1973-74. Curry had his 101st road game in which he made a 3-pointer. He’s the only player ever to reach the triple digit of that streak. He also has made a 3-pointer in 124 consecutive games; putting him just 3 games behind the NBA record. On a side note Trail Blazers guard Brian Roberts who was traded twice at the deadline this week made his debut. Roberts scored 7 points in just under 5 minutes of action.
The Trail Blazers get a day off before hosting the Utah Jazz on Sunday while the Warriors have to turn right around and face the Los Angeles Clippers Saturday night in Los Angeles. Could Golden State actually drop a 2nd game in a row t the Clippers tonight?
While there wasn’t that star player type traded at the deadline there where a few teams that made moves that could help them down the stretch and into the playoffs. I liked the addition of Randy Foye to the Oklahoma City Thunder bench. While Foye is averaging a career low 6 points this season he is playing just under 20 minutes a game. I a better offense he should get that scoring average closer to his career number of 11 points a game. The other move that might not only help the team this season it might add to the off season drama was when the Clippers added Jeff Green. The interesting part t this is that Green plays pretty much the same position as Blake Griffin. In Memphis Green was expected t be more of an offensive force where with the Clippers he’ll be able to easily slid into the line up with Chris Paul running the show. Green averages 14.1 points per game in his career, but you’d think in an uptempo Clippers offense that number will go up. The team I thought was the big winner at the trade deadline was the Detroit Pistons. Now they did lose their first game out of the gate after the trade deadline last night 98-86 to the Washington Wizards. The Pistons added Tobias Harris from the Orlando Magic along with Donatas Motiejunas and Marcus Thornton from the Houston Rockets at the trade deadline and while Harris was Detroit’s leading scorer last night with 21 points neither Thornton or Motiejunas played. With the trade and the travel Montiejunas and Thornton should make their debuts for the Pistons Sunday when the play host to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pistons are currently 27-28 and in 9th place in the Eastern Conference, but are just a 1 1/2 behind the Chicago Bulls for the 8th and final playoff spot. If it doesn’t take the Pistons to long to gel with the new additions they should be able to get themselves into the Eastern Conference playoff picture and might even be a threat to the top teams. If you have to say there where any losers at the trade deadline it would be any of the contending teams that didn’t make moves to get better. With the exception of the Thunder and the Clippers no other contending team made a move that might help them in the smallest way to catch the teams at the top right now like Golden State or the San Antonio Spurs. With about 30 games in the regular season we’ll see how this plays out for these teams, but right now do you see any other team besides Golden State holding up the Larry O’Brien trophy in the end?
The Bellator MMA promotion went back in time to get there main event for the Bellator 149 card. The main event was Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock and the tag line for the fight was that it would end their feud. With the ending of this fight I don’t really think anything was solved and you have to wonder if they’ll try this fight one more time. Gracie was awarded a first round TKO victory, but it appeared as though it was a knee to the groin that sent Shamrock to the canvas. As the two fighters where in a clinch the 49 year old Gracie threw a knee at the 52 year old Shamrock that appeared to catch him in or around the groin area. Shamrock went to the mat and Gracie knelt over him throwing punches until referee Jacab Mantalvo stopped the fight at 2.22 of the 1st round. A stat hat some people might find strange; this was the first knockout of Gracie’s career. The semi-main event was a match up of You Tube sensations as Kimbo Slice (Kevin Ferguson) faced off against Dada 500 (Dhafir Harris). The end came on the 3rd round as an exhausted Harris collapsed to the canvas following a punch from Slice; that didn’t appear to connect. Harris who is 38 years old and hasn’t fought professionally since 2011; landed his fair share of punches in the bout, but he was visibly winded early in the first round. The 42 year old Slice didn’t look much better. The two leaned on one another, exhausted, throughout the fight and the referee was forced to separate them numerous times due to inactivity. Harris was never knocked down from any of the shots, but the amount of shots he took eventually took an effect and he collapsed awkwardly in a heap. Harris was taken out of the cage by stretcher, but Bellator officials said he was able to sit and receive oxygen shortly after going backstage. The end of this fight received quite a bit of booing from the crowd.
I haven’t been invested in watching MMA in quite a while; so I really don’t know what to think about this card. Do you want to see a Shamrock/Gracie rematch?
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