GOLDEN STATE vs SAN ANTONIO
When: 2/9/2021 8:30 PM
Where: San Antonio

TV: 8:30 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: Take de under

Oddsmakers currently have the San Antonio Spurs listed as 1.5 point favorites versus the Golden State Warriors, while the game’s total is sitting at 232.5.

The Spurs are 11-10 against conference opponents. San Antonio is seventh in the Western Conference at limiting opponent scoring, allowing only 111.3 points while holding opponents to 47.2% shooting.

The Warriors are 8-7 in Western Conference play. Golden State is second in the Western Conference with 27.2 assists per game led by Draymond Green averaging 7.7.

The teams square off for the second straight game.

TOP PERFORMERS:

DeMar DeRozan is averaging 20.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists for the Spurs. Jakob Poeltl is shooting 62.3% and averaging 7.3 points over the last 10 games for San Antonio.

Curry leads the Warriors averaging 29.5 points and is adding 5.5 rebounds. Kelly Oubre Jr. is averaging two made 3-pointers and scoring 15.8 points over the last 10 games for Golden State.

LAST 10 GAMES:

Spurs: 6-4, averaging 110.7 points, 43.8 rebounds, 24.3 assists, 7.2 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 46.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.5 points on 48.2% shooting.

Warriors: 4-6, averaging 116.2 points, 43.8 rebounds, 28.8 assists, 7.9 steals and 5.2 blocks per game while shooting 47.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.6 points on 43.7% shooting.

INJURIES:

Spurs: Lonnie Walker IV: out (illness), LaMarcus Aldridge: out (hip).

Warriors: James Wiseman: out (wrist), Kevon Looney: out (ankle), Marquese Chriss: out for season (leg), Klay Thompson: out for season (right achilles).

BOTTOM LINE: Stephen Curry leads Golden State into a matchup with San Antonio. He currently ranks second in the league averaging 29.5 points per game.

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GOLDEN STATE vs SAN ANTONIO
When: 2/8/2021 8:30 PM
Where:

TV: 8:30 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: SAN ANTONIO , GOLDEN STATE

Oddsmakers currently have the SAN ANTONIO listed as point favorites versus the GOLDEN STATE, while the game’s total is sitting at .

Golden State Warriors (12-11, eighth in the Western Conference) vs. San Antonio Spurs (13-10, fifth in the Western Conference)

San Antonio; Monday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Golden State visits the San Antonio Spurs after Stephen Curry scored 57 points in the Warriors’ 134-132 loss to the Mavericks.

The Spurs have gone 10-10 against Western Conference opponents. San Antonio is ninth in the Western Conference scoring 111.2 points while shooting 45.4% from the field.

The Warriors are 8-6 in Western Conference play. Golden State is ninth in the NBA scoring 114.5 points per game while shooting 46.1%.

The teams meet for the second time this season. The Warriors won 121-99 in the last matchup on Jan. 20. Curry led Golden State with 26 points, and Dejounte Murray led San Antonio with 22 points.

TOP PERFORMERS: DeMar DeRozan leads the Spurs scoring 20.5 points per game, and is averaging 5.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists. Jakob Poeltl is shooting 61.7% and averaging 7 points over the last 10 games for San Antonio.

Curry is averaging 29.4 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Warriors. Draymond Green is averaging 8.1 assists and 5.3 points over the last 10 games for Golden State.

LAST 10 GAMES: Spurs: 6-4, averaging 112.7 points, 44 rebounds, 25.2 assists, 6.6 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 47.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.9 points on 48.1% shooting.

Warriors: 5-5, averaging 118.3 points, 44.3 rebounds, 29 assists, 8.1 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 48.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113 points on 43.3% shooting.

INJURIES: Spurs: Lonnie Walker IV: day to day (illness), LaMarcus Aldridge: out (hip).

Warriors: James Wiseman: out (wrist), Kevon Looney: out (ankle), Marquese Chriss: out for season (leg), Eric Paschall: day to day (knee), Klay Thompson: out for season (right achilles).

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GOLDEN STATE vs DALLAS
When: 2/6/2021 8:35 PM
Where:

TV: 8:35 PM
LINE: -4
PREDICTION: DALLAS , GOLDEN STATE

Oddsmakers currently have the DALLAS listed as -4 point favorites versus the GOLDEN STATE, while the game’s total is sitting at 230.5.

The Golden State Warriors will try to sustain near-perfection against a motivated opponent when they go for a two-game sweep of the host Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.

The injury-plagued and undersized Warriors outshot and, shockingly, outrebounded the Mavericks in a 147-116 romp in the opener of the three-day, two-game set on Thursday.

With Golden State forced to play small with its three centers and top reserve forward injured, Kelly Oubre Jr. responded best to the faster pace with a career-best 40 points.

Oubre, who began the season by missing his first 17 3-point shots and 27 of his first 28, bombed in seven 3-pointers in 10 attempts against the Mavericks. Golden State shot 51.2 percent (22 of 43) from beyond the arc and 57.3 percent overall as a team.

Led by Oubre and Juan Toscano-Anderson, the Warriors also amassed 45 rebounds, three more than the Mavericks, whose starting center — 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis — had an eight-inch height advantage over the tallest Golden State player.

“I felt like Nellie,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Golden State legend Don Nelson and his preferred small-ball approach. “It was like the Run TMC days all over again.”

Run TMC was the nickname applied to the Golden State team led by Tim Hardaway (T), Mitch Richmond (M) and Chris Mullin (C) that shocked the top-seeded Mavericks in the 2007 NBA playoffs.

Thursday’s outcome was arguably just as shocking. Stephen Curry added 28 points and Andrew Wiggins 18 as all nine Warriors who suited up got into the scoring act.

Toscano-Anderson, a two-way player who hadn’t been active or seen action in 14 of the team’s previous 16 games, was pressed into a starting role and excelled, complementing his 14 points with career-high-tying efforts in rebounds with eight, assists with five and blocks with two.

The 6-foot-6 Mexican national team player outrebounded Porzingis, 8-5.

The Warriors could be getting one of their injured players, second-team forward Eric Paschall, back for the rematch. He missed Thursday’s game with swelling in his right knee.

Dallas, which was playing its second game in two nights, kept pace with the Warriors by making 18 of their first 36 3-point attempts. But reality eventually set in for the NBA’s worst 3-point-shooting club, and their 2-for-14 finish helped Golden State pull away in the end.

“The nature of NBA basketball is to fall into a shot-trade type of back and forth when you’re hitting shots and when the other team is hitting shots,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle noted afterward. “It just feels like the game is flowing and one team can outscore the other.

“It’s a very dangerous situation to get in, especially with a team like Golden State, which is highly skilled.”

Porzingis finished with 25 points, 15 coming on 3-pointers. He attempted just eight shots inside the arc, making four.

Luka Doncic, a guard who at 6-7 was the same height as Golden State’s tallest player, led Dallas with 27 points, but he was harassed into five turnovers.

The clubs were meeting in Dallas for the first time since the Mavericks put a similar shellacking on the Warriors, 142-94, early last season.

Dallas swept last year’s three-game season series by an average of 31.7 points.

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GOLDEN STATE vs DALLAS
When: 2/4/2021 7:35 PM
Where:

TV: 7:35 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: DALLAS , GOLDEN STATE

Oddsmakers currently have the DALLAS listed as 3.5 point favorites versus the GOLDEN STATE, while the game’s total is sitting at 224.5.

The Golden State Warriors embark on one of the most unusual road trips in franchise history, and do so without any of the three centers on their roster, when they visit the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.

The Warriors landed in Dallas on Wednesday to begin a seven-day stay in the state of Texas, one in which they will visit just two cities.

After facing the Mavericks on Thursday and Saturday, the Warriors will move on to San Antonio, where they also will face the same opponent, the Spurs, in consecutive games on Monday and Tuesday.

The Warriors are coming off a 111-107 home loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, a game in which starting center Kevon Looney sustained a left ankle sprain that is expected to keep him out at least two weeks.

Golden State was already down Marquese Chriss, who broke his right leg early in the season, and James Wiseman, who sprained his left wrist Saturday in the Warriors’ win over the Detroit Pistons.

The remaining Warriors center options are all undersized forwards — 6-foot-6 Draymond Green, 6-6 Eric Paschall and 6-6 Juan Toscano-Anderson, who had been inactive 11 times in Golden State’s previous 14 games before earning a spot on the end of the bench Tuesday with Wiseman unavailable.

Toscano-Anderson was then pressed into 27 minutes of action against the Celtics, and he equaled his career-high in points (16) and 3-pointers (three).

“I am always prepared,” the former four-year Marquette player said after the Tuesday game. “I am a position-less player.

“My goal is to earn the trust of Steve (Kerr, the head coach,) and the rest of the coaching staff. Wherever he puts me in to plug a hole, that’s where I am going to try to be effective. Whether that is initiating the offense, defending the point guard, playing (center) … it is basketball and I just want to be effective wherever he puts me. I am ready for whatever.”

In this case, Toscano-Anderson probably should be ready for 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis, who contributed 24 points and 11 rebounds to Dallas’ 122-116 win at Atlanta on the front end of a back-to-back on Wednesday.

The oft-injured Porzingis hasn’t always played back-to-backs this season, so he’s no sure thing for the Thursday contest. He sat out Dallas’ Saturday home loss to Phoenix under similar circumstances after having played the night before at Utah.

Unlike the Warriors, the Mavericks have legitimate center options should they decide to rest Porzingis again. Willie Cauley-Stein, who started 37 games for Golden State last season and has started 10 of 22 for Dallas this season, would be an option, as would lesser-used backup Boban Marjanovic.

The teams haven’t met this season after the Mavericks crushed the Warriors in three straight last season, winning by an average of 31.7 points.

Luka Doncic averaged 28.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.3 assists in those games. Porzingis saw action in two of the contests, going for 16 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

Doncic amassed 27 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds Wednesday against the Hawks as Dallas snapped a six-game losing streak.

Even though it’s a back-to-back, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle left Atlanta looking forward to having his team in action again.

“Winning is huge,” he said. “It makes a big difference. Things are very upbeat right now.”

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BOSTON vs GOLDEN STATE
When: 2/2/2021 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE: 2.5
PREDICTION: GOLDEN STATE , BOSTON

Oddsmakers currently have the GOLDEN STATE listed as 2.5 point favorites versus the BOSTON, while the game’s total is sitting at 224.5.

The Boston Celtics will have to deal with Stephen Curry without one of their primary stoppers Tuesday night when they visit the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco.

The Celtics have lost two in a row, including 96-95 at home to the Los Angeles Lakers in a national showcase game Saturday night.

Even more of a setback was the loss of defensive whiz Marcus Smart, who suffered a strained left calf in the fourth quarter against the Lakers. An MRI taken Sunday revealed a Grade 1 tear, leading the Celtics to say he could miss upward of two weeks.

He definitely will miss the club’s entire eight-day, five-game Western swing that includes marquee matchups with the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday and Utah next Tuesday.

“Marcus is essential to our team man. He’s been great,” Jaylen Brown gushed after Saturday’s game as the team awaited news on the severity of the injury. “Whether the numbers show it or not, Marcus has been a leader on this team. He’s been somebody that has been looking to get guys the ball in the right spots, including me. So to have him go down in the middle of the game like that definitely had everybody concerned.”

Compounding the problem is the absence of impressive rookie Payton Pritchard, who suffered a sprained right knee last Monday. He isn’t expected back until the Celtics return home.

That leaves Kemba Walker and Jeff Teague as the primary defenders on Curry, the NBA leader in 3-point field goals who is also sixth in the league in scoring (27.7 ppg).

Curry missed both of the Warriors’ losses to Boston last season, so he’s never faced Walker as a Celtic. But their matchups when Walker played for Charlotte often produced fireworks, with Curry going for 30 or more points in three of the last six meetings, including games of 39 and 40.

In 12 career head-to-heads with Walker, Curry has averaged 28.1 points, shooting 51 percent overall and 47 percent on 3-pointers, averaging 5.1 threes per game.

Curry had 38 points the last time he matched up with Teague as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2018.

The Golden State standout contributed 28 points to a 118-91 home win over Detroit in the Warriors’ most recent game Saturday. The Warriors will be looking for a second consecutive victory for the sixth time this season without ever having won three in a row this season.

Curry declared after Saturday’s win that he’s just warming up.

“It follows my normal patterns of shooting better as the season goes on in general,” he said. “Definitely getting a lot more comfortable finding that balance knowing what types of shots I am going to get. Knowing what I can take and make. I don’t ever lose confidence in that respect, but you start to get a flow and carry that from game to game and you start to feel really good.”

With the Celtics having made their annual trip to San Francisco in November last season, it’s been almost 15 months since Brown, a former University of California star, enjoyed a Bay Area homecoming.

The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in his one season at Cal has exploded into a major offensive force since last seen by his college fans, having scored 20 or more points in 10 straight games and 18 or more in all 18 contests this season.

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DETROIT vs GOLDEN STATE
When: 1/30/2021 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE: -4.5
PREDICTION: GOLDEN STATE , DETROIT

Oddsmakers currently have the GOLDEN STATE listed as -4.5 point favorites versus the DETROIT, while the game’s total is sitting at 223.5.

The Detroit Pistons will be out to avenge an earlier defeat when they visit the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night in San Francisco.

The clubs met in the second week of the season in Detroit, with the Warriors riding 31 points from Stephen Curry and 27 from Andrew Wiggins to a 116-106 victory.

The Pistons got 27 points that night from Jerami Grant, but just eight from Blake Griffin in 17 minutes before he had to leave the game with a concussion.

Griffin and the Warriors are longtime rivals dating back to his days with the Los Angeles Clippers. He’s faced them 37 times in his career, including seven times in the 2014 playoffs.

With Griffin going for 24 points in Game 7, the Clippers outlasted the Warriors in that series, prompting Golden State to fire coach Mark Jackson and replace him with Steve Kerr.

The Warriors then went on to make the NBA Finals in each of the next five seasons, winning three championships.

Griffin has a career 13-24 record against Golden State, with losses in two of his three meetings since joining the Pistons and each of his last nine head-to-heads with the Clippers.

The 31-year-old turned back the clock against another longtime rival — the Los Angeles Lakers — on Thursday night, going for 23 points in a 107-92 home win.

“That was Blake rested, of two years ago, healthy and with some bounce and pep in his step,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey gushed afterward. “That’s what we needed. We needed a jolt on a back-to-back. I’m really happy with the way that he played.”

Wayne Ellington (6-for-9 on 3-pointers, 20 points) and Mason Plumlee (17 points, 10 rebounds) were surprise contributors to the win over the Lakers, which was just Detroit’s fifth in 19 games this season.

Ellington continued a franchise-record 3-point run, during which he has made at least four in seven straight games. The Warriors’ Curry is one of just seven players in NBA history to have had such a seven-game flurry.

Curry leads the NBA in 3-pointers. He added five to his total in Thursday’s 114-93 loss at Phoenix as the Warriors, like the Pistons, were playing for a second time in two days.

Wiggins complemented Curry’s 27-point night with 16 of his own on 6-for-11 shooting. They combined to go 16-for-31, while the rest of the team struggled to 22-for-68 (32 percent).

The loss came after a two-game home sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Warriors have put together five two-game winning streaks this season, only to lose the next game each time.

“We’re a growing team,” newcomer Kent Bazemore assessed after the Phoenix game. “We put together spurts where we have some good basketball. But obviously, we’re still trying to get better.”

While the Pistons will be opening an eight-day Western swing, the Warriors will be playing the first of two straight at home. They host Boston on Tuesday.

Detroit concludes its trip on Feb. 6 with a rematch against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

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GOLDEN STATE vs LA LAKERS
When: 1/18/2021 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE: -9
PREDICTION: LA LAKERS , GOLDEN STATE

Oddsmakers currently have the LA LAKERS listed as -9 point favorites versus the GOLDEN STATE, while the game’s total is sitting at 224.

The Los Angeles Lakers hope to vent three years’ worth of holiday frustration on the visiting Golden State Warriors when the Pacific Division powers of recent years go head-to-head Monday in the nightcap of the NBA’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

The Lakers will be playing on the holiday for the fourth consecutive year. They’ve gone winless in the previous three, thumped by a total of 60 points by Memphis, Golden State and Boston.

The 2019 defeat was a 130-111 shellacking at home against the Warriors in which Golden State’s Klay Thompson made NBA history by making his first 10 3-point attempts during a 44-point explosion.

The Los Angeles native, currently out of action while rehabbing a torn Achilles, tied two NBA records that day — most consecutive made 3-pointers to start a game and most consecutive made threes at any point of a game.

That win was one of nine for the Warriors in their last 11 appearances in the MLK Day showcase. In all, they’ve been scheduled on the holiday in 20 of the last 21 years and have gone 18-10 since the NBA began honoring the day with a special made-for-TV schedule in 1986.

The Warriors will be facing the Lakers with LeBron James for the first time on the holiday, but they have plenty of experience against the superstar on the third Monday in January.

As reigning NBA finalists from the previous season, the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, led by James, squared off on the King holiday three straight years from 2016-18. Golden State prevailed in those games by 34 points at Cleveland, 35 points at home and 10 points at Cleveland.

James had 16, 20 and 32 points in those games, while Warriors star Stephen Curry countered with 35, 20 and 23.

James declared Saturday that Monday’s appearance means more to him than just a shot at revenge against the Warriors. It’s all about King, he said.

“His name and his words and his legacy still lives on,” James praised. “He’s shining his light on us every day.”

The Lakers have won five in a row, including 112-95 over New Orleans on Friday. It was just the defending champs’ fourth victory in seven home games, whereas they’ve opened the season 7-0 on the road.

James had a 21-point, 11-assist double-double against the Pelicans.

The Lakers haven’t played since Friday, but the Warriors will take the court even more well rested. They were last seen in Denver on Thursday, where they suffered a 114-104 loss to the Nuggets.

A game scheduled for Friday in Phoenix was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Suns.

Curry had 35 points on 14-for-23 shooting, including going 5-for-11 on 3-pointers in Denver. But he got little help from his teammates, who combined to hit just 41 percent of their shots, including going 6-for-18 from beyond the arc.

“We’re not really in sync yet,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr observed after his team committed 19 turnovers, including seven by Curry. “And that’s going to take time.”

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PORTLAND vs GOLDEN STATE
When: 1/3/2021 8:35 PM
Where:

TV: 8:35 PM
LINE: 5
PREDICTION: GOLDEN STATE , PORTLAND

Oddsmakers currently have the GOLDEN STATE listed as 5 point favorites versus the PORTLAND, while the game’s total is sitting at 234.5.

The Portland Trail Blazers hope to continue the visiting team’s dominance in the NBA’s new same-opponent scheduling experiment when they go for a two-game sweep over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night in San Francisco.

Oakland native Damian Lillard surpassed 15,000 career points and led a 3-point barrage Friday that led Portland to a front-running, 123-98 win in the opener of the two-game set at the Warriors’ home site.

Before the Trail Blazers and Warriors took the court for the series opener on Friday, seven such back-to-backs had taken place in the NBA this season. The road team swept the games three times, while the other four series were split.

Interestingly, Lillard was the only Portland starter who did not contribute to seven early 3-pointers that were the foundation of a 29-9 run that left the Warriors behind for good.

CJ McCollum had four early 3-pointers as part of a 28-point night, but it was Lillard who wound up stealing the show. His 21st of 34 points allowed him to become the second Trail Blazer ever to reach the 15,000 milestone, joining Clyde Drexler in that accomplishment.

Afterward, Lillard seemed more focused on his next point rather than his first 15,013.

“Fifteen thousand is a huge accomplishment, something that I’m proud of,” he noted, “but my work is far from done.”

Blowout losses already are nothing new to the Warriors this season. They began the season with 26- and 39-point shellackings at Brooklyn and Milwaukee, respectively.

The loss to Portland (3-2) continued a trend in which the Warriors (2-3) have won when they’ve forced opponents into mistakes. They had a total of 25 steals in their wins at Chicago and Detroit, and have totaled just 15 (including four against the Trail Blazers) in their three losses.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr found nothing comforting in the one-sided defeat.

“They played a great game and we played a very poor game,” he said. “The start of the game was very disappointing. We just didn’t have much energy and they came out smoking hot. I didn’t like our overall engagement or our mentality.”

The win was Portland’s third straight over Golden State in a matchup of teams that have met in the postseason in three of the last five years.

On those occasions, the clubs squared off in consecutive games at the same site six times (three at Golden State, three at Portland). The Warriors lost just one of those 12 games.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 26 points, extending his franchise record for consecutive free throws made to 76 by making all four of his attempts.

He shot 4-for-12 on 3-pointers, making more than the rest of the team combined (3-for-23).

Warriors newcomer Kelly Oubre Jr. continued his nightmarish start from long distance, missing all four of his 3-point attempts. He’s now 1-for-25 for the season, becoming the first player in NBA history to attempt at least 25 three in the first five games of a season and making fewer than three.

Getting six 3-pointers from Lillard, four from McCollum and three apiece from Carmelo Anthony and Anfernee Simons, Portland outgunned Golden State 60-21 from beyond the arc.

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PORTLAND vs GOLDEN STATE
When: 1/1/2021 10:30 PM
Where:

TV: 10:30 PM
LINE: 3.5
PREDICTION: GOLDEN STATE , PORTLAND

Oddsmakers currently have the GOLDEN STATE listed as 3.5 point favorites versus the PORTLAND, while the game’s total is sitting at 230.5.

The Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors get an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the NBA’s new version of a doubleheader when they meet Friday night in San Francisco.

The Western Conference clubs, who have gone head-to-head in the playoffs in three of the past five seasons, are scheduled for a rematch, also in San Francisco, Sunday.

The Warriors will become the last team in the NBA to host a home opener, having started with blowout losses at Brooklyn and Milwaukee, followed by narrow wins at Chicago and Detroit.

Golden State was at its season-best both offensively and defensively in Tuesday’s 116-106 win at Detroit, shooting 50 percent from the field and limiting the Pistons to 38 percent.

Stephen Curry has been the driving force in the Warriors’ offensive improvement. He averaged 19.5 points and shot 4-for-20 on 3-pointers against the Nets and Bucks, games in which Golden State was held to 99 points apiece.

But Curry has found the range in his last two outings, hitting 10 of his 24 3s while posting a 33.5 scoring average, helping the Warriors put up 129 points against the Bulls and 116 against the Pistons.

Now Golden State expects to get defensive ace Draymond Green on the court for the first time after he missed the first four games following a positive coronavirus test and a subsequent strained right foot.

All told, Golden State coach Steve Kerr is happy where his team sits.

“I think coming into this trip, when the season schedule came out, we all looked at it and we all thought if we could go 2-2, that’d be a really successful trip,” he said after the win in Detroit. “Especially given the length of our offseason and everything going on with our team: Draymond being out, Draymond missing camp, all that.

“So I think we all feel great. We’re excited to get home. And our confidence level should be rising because we’re starting to see the type of team that we should be.”

The Trail Blazers got a veteran forward back from COVID-19 issues when Carmelo Anthony made his season debut in Wednesday’s 128-105 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Anthony was the team’s top scorer off the bench with 15 points in 25 minutes.

Portland has opened 2-2 against a tough schedule that has featured all Western Conference playoff teams from last season. They had won in Los Angeles 115-107 against the Lakers two nights before falling to the Clippers.

Now the Trail Blazers embark on a five-game stretch in which they won’t see a 2020 playoff club.

“We’ve won some close games, we’ve got blown out,” guard CJ McCollum said. “But at the end of the day, we’re 2-2 (a week) into the season. So there’s a lot of time left to kind of figure things out. We have two games left on this road trip, so we have to take care of business.”

Interestingly, Friday’s game features the current record-holder for points scored in the 1-year-old Chase Center in San Francisco, and it isn’t Curry.

Portland’s Damian Lillard, an Oakland native, poured in an arena-record 39 last November in a 127-118 loss.

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GOLDEN STATE vs DETROIT
When: 12/29/2020 7:05 PM
Where:

TV: 7:05 PM
LINE: 3.5
PREDICTION: DETROIT , GOLDEN STATE

Oddsmakers currently have the DETROIT listed as 3.5 point favorites versus the GOLDEN STATE, while the game’s total is sitting at 222.5.

Veteran coaches Steve Kerr and Dwane Casey hope to take the next step toward understanding different-looking rosters this season when the Golden State Warriors visit the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

The Warriors wrap up a season-opening, four-game trip looking to break even after Damion Lee’s 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds remaining allowed them to overtake the Chicago Bulls for a 129-128 victory on Sunday.

As the Warriors rested in Detroit on Monday, the Pistons found themselves in Atlanta, where Casey elected to rest Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose in what became his team’s third straight defeat to start the campaign, a 128-120 setback against the Hawks.

Griffin and Rose are expected to be back in the lineup Tuesday as Casey attempts to write a script that maximizes their health and performances this season.

“We didn’t want to run them to the ground because of the back-to-back. That’s the reason,” Casey said when asked why arguably his two best players weren’t suiting up for just the third game of the young season. “I don’t want to say this is going to be the plan throughout the year. Their bodies and how they feel will lend a lot to how we want to do it.”

Griffin, 31, made it through just 18 games last season because of a sore left knee that eventually required surgery. The 11-year veteran has missed fewer than 21 games in a season just once since 2014-15.

Meanwhile, Rose, 32, has played no more than 51 games in each of the past three seasons and no more than 66 games in the past nine campaigns. Both he and Griffin missed full seasons early in their career due to knee surgeries.

Griffin averaged 20.5 points and Rose 14 in the Pistons’ season-opening losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers. In their absence at Atlanta, newcomers Jerami Grant and Josh Jackson led the way with 27 points apiece.

The Pistons haven’t been able to overcome a leaky defense that is allowing 122.3 points per game. But in the Warriors, they’ll see an opponent that has been ever weaker defensively, having given up a league-worst 130.3 points per game.

Coming off one-sided losses at Brooklyn and Milwaukee, Golden State was able to get into the win column Sunday thanks to season-best efforts in all three shooting percentages — field goal (40.4 percent), 3-point (38.3 percent) and free throw (90 percent).

Kerr is hoping the improvement is a sign of things to come, admitting he is still getting to know a roster that’s missing most of its key players from the run of five straight trips to the NBA Finals.

“I, frankly, haven’t done a great job of implementing things in an orderly fashion,” he said Monday. “And what I mean by that is I should have been probably simpler with what we were delivering right from Day 1.”

The Warriors scored 30 more points against the Bulls than they managed in either of their first two games. Stephen Curry was one big difference as he exploded for 36 points, making five 3-pointers after he had gone a combined 4-for-20 from beyond the arc earlier.

Draymond Green, who missed most of training camp after a positive coronavirus test before sustaining a foot strain on the eve of the opener, remains out of the Warriors’ lineup.

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