Damian Lillard and his Portland Trail Blazers took on the Golden State Warriors on Friday night and they earned an easy win over the struggling Warriors. Stephen Curry and co. haven’t had the best season so far and that’s become a problem for him and the rest of his team, who can’t find their best version without Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the court.
The Dubs were dominated by Portland and Curry had a relatively shy game, scoring 26 points with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. The point guard is struggling to lead his team to be winners again and it’s really showing. He’s not the same guy that could light up any arena with his shooting skills and the Dubs need to find answers as soon as possible.
Prior to their Friday night game, Lillard had explained why it was so hard for Curry and his team to find success in the league this season, pointing out at all the changes the league suffered since the Warriors last played in the NBA Finals (2019).
“I think right now, with the injuries that the Warriors have been dealing with and Steph playing with a younger team right now, he’s seeing that it’s tough to get those quality looks right now,” Lillard told former teammate Dorell Wright, in an interview on “Warriors Pregame Live.”
“It’s different than what it’s looked like over the last four or five years for him,” Lillard continued. “He’s trying to get quality looks and get a clean look so he can make a good one. You don’t really have that luxury to take one from that deep just to be taking it like in the past he might have, and I’m the same, getting a lot of attention from defenses.”
"He's seeing that it's tough to get those quality looks right now… It's different than what it's looked like the last 4-5 years."
– Dame Lillard on Steph Curry pic.twitter.com/oQutiosRZP
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) January 2, 2021
After the game was over, Dame said something similar, talking about the strategy the Warriors use for Curry and how Portland prepared for that before this game.
“We know they like to move Steph around a lot off the ball,” Lillard said, via Oregon Live. “And we came in saying we just want to make them play inside the three-point line.”
“We knew if we could make his life hard and make other guys have to beat us and take shots that Steph is usually taking or they’re not used to taking, we would have a good chance,” Lillard said.
Things have changed a lot in the league, especially for the Warriors. They don’t have Kevin Durant anymore; Klay Thompson won’t return until next season and in the meantime, the rest of the league has gotten stronger in comparison to them. This is not a good situation for them and they need to figure things out before it’s too late.
