The Warriors hear all the doubts and perceived slights; they see every raised eyebrow and passive aggressive tweet, and turn all of that into fuel to throttle opponents on the basketball court. So when the Blazers embarrassed them in a 32-point beat down in Portland last month, it was expected that the Dubs would come out locked-in and fired up for the rematch. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson had four 3-pointers a piece in the first quarter alone and the Warriors scored 81-points … in the first half. Golden State never took its foot off the peddle in a contest that was far less competitive than the 16-point margin might suggest.
 
Here are 10 thoughts on the game:

1) All the analytics and sports science and diagrammed plays and defensive strategies and sometimes the game just comes down to which team’s best players perform better. In this contest, the Splash Brothers combined for 71 points on 15-of-25 on 3-pointers while the Blazers’ Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum struggled to a combined 35 points on 34 shot attempts. All the expert analysis in the world can’t be better than this: the Warriors won because their backcourt more than doubled the scoring of the Blazer’s backcourt. Add in Draymond Green’s 17 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists (with no pass prettier than this), and yeah, that’s why they won.

Draymond Green Plumlee2) Klay called the 32-point thrashing the Warriors took in Portland “a fluke.” Lillard didn’t take well to that comment, but Thompson went out and backed up his words. The two-time All-Star was feeling it from jump (12 points) and had 37 points total on a blistering 8-of-11 from beyond the arc. He was also the main defender on Lillard, who shot 5-of-19 in the game.

3) The Blazers’ backcourt is often referred to as “young” but Steph and Klay are only 2 years older than Dame and CJ. We fans can sit back and watch these battles take place for the next half-decade.

4) In one span of 47 seconds in the first quarter, Curry scored 9 points with three quick flicks of the wrist from beyond the arc. When he’s shooting like that, there’s a good chance a highlight like this will follow. Defenders can’t give him any airspace, and thus become susceptible to getting beat off the dribble.

5) One negative: Andre Iguodala’s ankle sprain. Having just returned from a hamstring injury, the veteran is likely to be shelved for at least the next game after Lillard rolled onto his left leg. X-rays were negative. (X-rays on Gerald Henderson’s pride were inconclusive.)

Ian Clark6) Myers Leonard’s (10 points, 13 rebounds) back-to-the-basket game reminds me of those websites in the late 90s that forever read “under construction.”

7) HB’s rugged offensive stretch continues (7 points, 1-4 FG). He’s averaging 7.6 points on 33% shooting in his last five outings, but to his credit, continues to play good D and rebound the ball (6).

8) Is it just me or do the referees let Dray get away with more yapping than most players?

9) Ian Clark made a floater. If he could ever consistently hit that shot his game would open so much.

10) To get to a record 73 wins, the Warriors will need to go 15-3 the rest of the season with 3 games remaining versus the Spurs and 1 against the Clippers.