Still perfect.
The Golden State Warriors had a perfect preseason, and then got to start the 2024-25 NBA season by facing a Portland Trail Blazers team that figures to be not very competitive this year. It was fair to expect an emphatic win.
And an emphatic win was exactly what the Dubs delivered, albeit it took a little bit of a detour for the first quarter.
Steve Kerr opted to open the year with a large starting lineup, with the opening five being Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green, and Trayce Jackson-Davis. And the initial results weren’t exactly what Kerr was looking for.
The Dubs couldn’t buy a basket to start the game with miss after miss prompting Kerr to call a timeout barely four minutes into the game, with the Dubs trailing 10-3 and all of their points coming on free throws. The ball was moving and the looks were good, they just weren’t falling … and that continued after the timeout. Curry missed a triple on the first possession — his third missed three of the game — and the team would miss their first nine attempts from the field, before a Green layup with under 6:30 remaining finally broke the cold streak.
That didn’t take the lid off the basket. The Warriors still couldn’t make shots, and at one point were 2-for-15 from the field. But the defense was tightening, restricting Portland’s clean looks. And finally, with just under two minutes left, Buddy Hield sprung free for a three and swished it through the net … his first points as a Warrior, the team’s first three in nine attempts and, remarkably, their first made jump shot of the game. And perhaps most importantly, it tied the game. Hield made a three on the next possession too, and even though the Dubs shot just 6-for-23 from the field (and 2-for-12 from deep), they were tied 21-21 after the first quarter.
And after that, it simply wasn’t competitive.
The five-man unit that started the second quarter — De’Anthony Melton, Moses Moody, Kuminga, Kyle Anderson, and Kevon Looney — was impermeable on defense, even though the offense stayed cold (and Moody had to leave early after collecting three quick fouls). But while the defense continued to hold strong, the offense finally began to turn things around. Hield was carrying much of the offense, while Brandin Podziemski’s energy and effort was opening up the court for the Dubs, and getting extra possessions. With just over four minutes left they led 44-37, prompting Portland to call a timeout that did very little. Green collected a technical foul late in the half that seemed to set the team off, and soon — led by an explosion from Wiggins — it was a double-digit lead. With the energy and aggression flowing freely, the Warriors dropped in 41 points in the quarter, and held a 62-50 halftime lead.
And then the third-quarter Warriors came to play. Curry, who had made just one shot — and no threes — in the first half, drained a triple early in the third quarter. A 5-0 Portland run pulled the Blazers back to within 10, but then the Warriors remembered how many good thing happen when they pass and cut. So they passed and they cut, and rattled off a 10-3 run to make it an 80-63 advantage, prompting a Portland timeout.
The timeout did nothing. Curry emerged from it. with another three (his third in the quarter, on as many attempts), which was followed up by a Hield three and a Hield three-point play. It was a 19-3 run and a 26-point lead. They were different teams playing at different levels, and there was no sense that Portland would even flirt with making the game close again.
And they wouldn’t. The Dubs led 99-72 after the third quarter, and rested all of their starters in the fourth quarter — remarkably, no one played more than 25 minutes. They cruised through the fourth, winning 139-104 … the largest Opening Night margin of victory in franchise history.
While Kerr had hinted at the Warriors trimming down to a 10-man rotation, it was 12 players who got meaningful run on Wednesday, as everyone except Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos played non-garbage time minutes. Hield led the way with 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting, and shot 5-for-7 from deep, as he looked capable of transforming the offense. Wiggins, despite a truncated preseason, was fantastic, dropping in 20 points and four rebounds, shooting 4-for-7 from distance, and playing strong defense. Curry finished a rebound shy of a triple-double (17 points, nine rebounds, and 10 assists), while Podziemski had a very Podziemski game: he didn’t score, but he grabbed seven rebounds, dished four assists, drew a charge, and finished with a game-high plus/minus of +34 in just 25 minutes.
The ball moved brilliantly — Golden State had 38 assists, even if they were a touch sloppy at times — and they outrebounded Portland 58-41.
Can’t ask for much more in an opener.