Bench carries Warriors to victory against Blazers

Gary Payton II and Buddy Hield to the rescue!

When you win 10 out of 11 games, as the Golden State Warriors have done, there’s no singular script for success. You have to find multiple ways to win games. Some are pretty, some are ugly; some dramatic, and some stress free. On Monday night, the Dubs tried a new way to win en route to a 130-120 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers: a two-man bench mob.

Raise your hand if you predicted Gary Payton II to score his single-game career high, or for he and the recently-slumping Buddy Hield to combine for 46 highly-efficient points.

The starters were good, but Portland kept pace with them. The Warriors only outscored the Blazers by six points when Steph Curry was on the court, and only by four points when Draymond Green was. It was just a one-point positive margin when Jimmy Butler III was on the hardwood, and the Dubs were outscored when playing Moses Moody and Quinten Post.

But they bested the Blazers by 16 points when Hield had checked in, and by 14 when Payton was on the court, with the other two bench players — Gui Santos (+7) and Kevon Looney (+6) — also getting in on the plus/minus fun.

It was a slowish start, which wasn’t too surprising. If there’s one thing the Blazers can do, it’s play with energy, and they’ve slowly turned into a fairly decent team: they brought a 14-9 record since mid-January into the Chase Center on Monday. And so it wasn’t shocking — though it was disappointing — when Portland flew all over the court and immediately built up a 7-0 lead.

The Dubs answered back thanks to an unlikely source: Post. The rookie center drained a pair of early and was a menace inside, with a key block and some tough rebounds. The Dubs started to out-execute the Blazers, but Portland’s combination of effort, athleticism, and shooting was keeping them in it. Still and all, Golden State managed a 35-27 lead after the first quarter, and a Hield three to start the second made it an 11-point game.

But the Blazers had no intentions of disappearing. They had an answer for every Warriors run, and though they couldn’t re-take the lead in the quarter, they repeatedly would cut into the deficit, just to see the Warriors build it back up again.

With Butler quietly operating like a brilliant chess player controlling the offense and defense, Payton and Hield got to work, seemingly scoring every time they touched the ball — they combined to shoot 5-for-6 from deep in the frame.

Golden State had pushed the lead comfortably to double digits when the final minute of the half rolled around, and then it ended on a brilliant two-for-one. After Payton had outworked multiple Blazers to grab a loose ball, he attempted — while laying on the ground — to save the ball to Green, but the officials ruled that the ball had gone out of bounds. Green was adamant that it had not, so Steve Kerr called for a challenge. The Warriors won the challenge, and Payton drained a three a few seconds later. They forced a steal on the other end, and Moody sank a layup in transition with less than a second remaining to give the Dubs a commanding 68-49 lead at the break.

I’ll be honest: I thought the game was over at that point. It sure seemed like the Warriors were going to coast against a lesser team that was on the road and playing a back-to-back. The Blazers had no such plans though. They came out of the locker rooms with the energy of a 16-seed smelling blood in the first round of March Madness. Through sheer will and energy they opened the quarter on a 16-5 run, and suddenly it was a game again. Yet every time they got close — and my goodness did they get close — the Warriors had an answer. But the game hung in the balance, decided by only a few possessions for the bulk of the quarter.

Finally, Curry put on the superhero mask that he had donned during the road trip, and started to make impossible shot after impossible shot, firing up his teammates and fans along the way. Suddenly the lead was back to double digits. Naturally, though, the Blazers cut it right back to four points, but the Warriors ended on a run, and led 102-92 going into the fourth.

And that quarter was, blissfully, stress-free. Payton and Hield again caught fire, leading an explosive offensive charge with transition buckets, gorgeous jump-shots, and timely cuts. The Warriors were playing without a care (in the good way), and were having all sorts of fun as the lead grew to 17 points.

The Blazers would make some more shots, but they had no sustained run left in them. Golden State controlled the action the rest of the way, never dealing with much of a scare, and winning 130-120.

Payton led the Warriors with 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting, including 4-for-6 from deep, as he continued his recent scoring surge. Hield caught fire and played brilliantly within the system, needing just 10 shots to score 20 points, and dishing seven assists as well. Curry (24) and Moody (20) made it a quartet of efficient 20-point scorers as the Dubs moved to 37-28 on the season, and held strong in the sixth spot in the West. While those four put up the gaudy scoring numbers, Butler quietly achieved his first triple-double with the Warriors, netting 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.

But the story was the bench. In a game ultimately decided by just 10 points, the Dubs outscored the Blazers 56-23 in bench points.

There are a whole lot of ways to win. We’ll get to see what method the Warriors choose when the return to action on Thursday to host the Sacramento Kings.