Jimmy Butler III had 24 points and seven assists and the visiting Golden State Warriors got a victory they needed and beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 103-86, on Friday night.
The win moves Warriors to 48-33 this season with its last regular season at home against La Clippers Sunday. Golden State is currently bound with Timberwolves for the sixth seed in the Western Conference and owns Tiebreaker over Minnesota. Warriors is a game behind Nuggets and Clippers, which are bound for fourth. Golden State has tiebreaker over Denver, but not LA.
Buddy Hield finished with 16 points for Warriors. Jabari Walker led Blazers with 19. The 86 points were a season low for Portland (35-46).
It was Warrior’s ninth straight victory over Blazers and 13th during the last 14 meetings.
Blazers had eight players on the inactive list for the game, including leading goal scores Anternee Simons.
Blazer’s beginner Donovan Clingan got Portland to a good start and scored six straight points to open the competition and Portland led 20-14 after a drive by Rayan Rupert with 2:54 left in the first quarter, but Warriors would not score again for over three minutes playing time. Golden State bridged the first and second quarters with a 14-0 run of a couple of free throw by Butler to take a lead that they would never lose.
Hield went 4-for-7 from 3-point intervals for Warriors during the first half and Portland’s crime spouted and shot 31.9 percent during the first half. Golden State led 50-37 at half time.
Golden State built the lead as large as 25 during the third quarter, but then went six minutes without a basket that allowed Blazers to pull to 67-52.
Late in the first quarter, the curry left the game with a damaged right thumb. He returned during the second quarter and played with his thumb wrapped in white band. Curry went 6-for-14 from the floor, 2-for-8 on 3-points and did not play during the fourth quarter.
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