Damian Lillard And C.J. McCollum Went Down Swinging In Game 1 Against The Warriors

There’s something fun about watching underdogs forget that they are underdogs and play with zero fear.

Case in point: The Portland Trail Blazers lost to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday afternoon, 121-109. This does not come as a surprise to anyone. What was somewhat surprising was that Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum went on the road and routinely shredded Golden State’s stingy defense.

By the time the two teams went into the locker room for halftime, the game was tied at 56. Of Portland’s 56 points, their combined for 48 of them – McCollum had 27 on 11-for-14 shooting, Lillard had 21 while going 6-for-11 from the floor and 7-for-7 from the free throw line in his hometown. Both of them did this in only 18 first-half minutes.

It set a tone early that the two All-Stars are not going to flinch at any point over the course of this series. That’s an important part of beating Golden State – there is almost certainly going to be one spurt in every quarter where they try to hit you with their best shot over and over. It is your job to make sure you don’t get rattled, because all the Warriors need are for one of those spurts to snowball into something bigger than a spurt and it’s over.

For the Blazers, that spurt came in the fourth quarter, when Golden State ripped off 11 straight points. It was enough to keep Portland at arm’s length for the rest of the game and gave the Warriors the 12-point win. Prior to that, it felt like the fearlessness of Lillard – who said the team had nothing to lose prior to the start of the series – and McCollum could be enough to drag Portland to a win.

In the end, McCollum (41) and Lillard (34) combined to score 75 points and shot 28-for-54 (51.8 percent) from the field. Everyone else on the Blazers combined to score 34 points and shot 12-for-39 (30.7 percent) from the field. It illustrated the single biggest issue Portland has – their backcourt is brilliant, the rest of the team is … well, let’s say hot and cold. (For example, Portland’s bench scored nine points, while Ian Clark scored 12 on his own off of Golden State’s bench.)

If Jusuf Nurkic is able to come back, this could help out a little bit, as Noah Vonleh and Meyers Leonard combined to score two points against the Dubs. Prior to Sunday’s game, Blazers coach Terry Stotts said that Nurkic – who averaged 15.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 20 games with the team before getting injured – said it was “too early to tell” if he’ll be able to play in the series.

Nurkic would also help with the biggest issue Portland had on Sunday: figuring out Draymond Green. The Warriors’ do-everything big man was brilliant in Game 1, as he scored 19 points, pulled in 12 rebounds, dished out nine assists, blocked five shots, and registered three steals. Even more important than his impact on the stat sheet, he gave the team an emotional shot in the arm time and time again. Take for instance this blocked shot, which sent the crowd at Oracle Arena into a frenzy and fired Green up, because no one responds to big defensive plays quite like Green.

It’s totally possible that Nurkic coming back would lead to Zaza Pachulia playing more – he registered 12 minutes on Sunday, while no one on Golden State’s “death lineup” of Green, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala played fewer than 33. Slowing down Nurkic would be a completely different challenge from slowing down Leonard and Vonleh. This would likely mean that the death lineup wouldn’t play as much, or Green’s ability to fly around and be a menace would have to be reeled in a little bit.

But if he doesn’t return, that may just mean we get to watch Lillard and McCollum try to respond to Golden State’s haymakers with haymakers of their own. We saw how close they can get to beating the Warriors when they do that on Sunday, and the Blazers’ Twitter account said it best.

Game 2 of the series will take place on Wednesday night.