The Golden State Warriors need to turn their season around and in a hurry, and with the dangerous Portland Trailblazers coming in to Oracle Arena on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back, they have themselves a golden opportunity. Both teams duked it out the entire first half, with a late push before th half giving Portland the 53-48 advantage at halftime.
The Warriors were down by as much as 10 in the first quarter, but a couple of Brandon Rush three's and some nice defensive trips for the W's brought them back, forcing Portland to take jumpers late in the shot clock or creating a turnover. Both sides traded the lead back and forth in the second, but Brandon Rush kept pouring it on, leading all scorers with 14 on 5-6 from the floor and a perfect 3-3 from downtown. Rush has now hit 12 of his last 16 trey's.
Stephen Curry had a nice first half as well, dropping 12 on 5-8 shooting as well as four rebounds. David Lee added nine.
Portland was dead set on attacking the paint early and often, using their trio of trees in LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicalas Batum, and Gerald Wallace to attack the W's inside. Batum leads Portland with 11 in the first half, while Aldridge has 10.
Overall the defense was rather taught for Golden State, holding Portland to only 44% shooting as well as keeping up on the boards 18-14. They've also committed six turnovers already, something they'll have to limit in the second half.
If Golden State can finally play four quarters of Warriors basketball, they may just hang on for the win.
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