The Portland Trail Blazers finished their 2021 preseason schedule against the Golden State Warriors tonight. Once again, Damian Lillard had the game off, this time joined by reserve point guard Anfernee Simons. Any Lillard-less version of the Blazers is expected to suffer on offense, but Portland couldn’t do much on defense tonight either. Steph Curry topped 40, the Warriors hit a bunch of threes, and the Blazers exited the exhibition season winless.
Portland got off to a 27-17 lead after the first quarter, a reversal of their preseason-long trend of falling behind early. There were asterisks.