Portland Trail Blazers: 3 takeaways from Game 1 loss vs. Warriors

The Portland Trail Blazers came out very flat in Game 1 of the 2019 Western Conference Finals. Here are three takeaways from their brutal loss.

It’s already hard enough to win at Oracle Arena as the visiting team. The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t do themselves any favors in Game 1 of the 2019 Western Conference Finals. They lost big, 116-94, to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. The Blazers are now down 0-1 in the series, with Game 2 set for Thursday.

Portland jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the game, but it was all downhill from there. Golden State took its first lead of the game with 9:51 to go in the first quarter and never gave it back.

The Blazers remained competitive through most of the first three periods. However, the Warriors started pulling away late in the third, inflating their advantage to 17 points with 5:23 left. Portland made a final push to get within six points by the end of the frame, but GSW would pull away for good in the fourth, outscoring the visitors 39-23 in the final frame.

Damian Lillard paced Portland with 19 points, six assists and four rebounds. CJ McCollum, Maurice Harkless and Rodney Hood added 17 points each. Enes Kanter scored 10 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. Stephen Curry led Golden State with 36 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Klay Thompson added 26 points, while Draymond Green had 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

The Portland Trail Blazers kicked off their first conference final in 19 years on the wrong foot with a bad road loss. Needless to say, they will have to make a number of adjustments to compete in Game 2. What went wrong in Game 1? Here are three takeaways from Rip City’s ugly defeat.