NBA Game Preview - Golden State at Portland

Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:00 PM EST

The season has been so disastrous for the Golden State Warriors that you would think nothing could further shock Steve Kerr.

But the Warriors head coach studied the postgame stats after Sunday's 100-79 loss at home to the Sacramento Kings and was amazed in a very bad way.

"I've never seen a box score like this, where we forced 29 turnovers but lost by 21 points," Kerr said in his postgame press conference. "It shows you how poorly we played. Our decision-making was awful. It was an embarrassing loss."

Those type of defeats have been adding up for Golden State, which owns an NBA-worst 5-23 record heading into Wednesday's contest against the host Portland Trail Blazers.

The Warriors have dropped four straight games and eight of their last nine. The 79 points against the Kings matched their season low scored against the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 2.

That total of 29 turnovers Sacramento committed was the most by an NBA team so far this season. And Golden State was still blown out.

"We lost by 20," frustrated Warriors forward Draymond Green told reporters. "I ain't never seen that (expletive) before. ... We sucked. In every way, shape and form."

Golden State will look for an improved effort against the Trail Blazers, one of the teams it has actually defeated this season.

The Warriors, who have won 10 of the past 14 meetings with the Blazers, notched a 127-118 home win over Portland on Nov. 4. Rookie forward Eric Paschall was the star with season highs of 34 points and 13 rebounds.

Paschall has missed the past two games with a hip injury and his availability may not be known until Wednesday.

Portland star guard Damian Lillard scored 39 points in the loss to the Warriors but he was the hero of Monday's 111-110 road victory over the Phoenix Suns.

The Trail Blazers recovered from a 16-point, second-quarter deficit and were trailing by two points late in the game when Lillard was intent on driving to the hoop.

He drove past Phoenix point guard Ricky Rubio, and big man Aron Baynes moved into the center of the lane to impede Lillard's path. However, Lillard crashed into Baynes, made the basket and sank the ensuing free throw to give Portland the one-point lead with 26 seconds left.

"I knew I would get past my man and I was just seeing where guys were going to come from to help and once I saw (Baynes) slowly leaving his man, he was inching over and he didn't look like he was loading up to block it, so I knew he was going to take a charge and I kind of like jumped to the right and he had to meet me on the other side, so he had to take an extra slide," Lillard told reporters. "So once I laid it in, I knew it was a block because he was moving underneath."

Lillard scored 27 points with backcourt mate CJ McCollum recording a game-high 30 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists.

McCollum was more impressed with his club's defense. The Trail Blazers allowed just 43 second-half points after giving up 67 in the first half.

"Second half, we got stops," McCollum told reporters. "We played better defensively, held them to 21 points in the third quarter and that was huge for us and we got back into the game."

Portland forward Carmelo Anthony contributed 23 points and has reached at least 20 in five of the past 10 games.

--Field Level Media