Preview: Warriors Terry Stotts’ Revenge Night Against Blazers

VENGEANCE!

Let’s talk about poetry and payback, Dub Nation. While we’ve been obsessing over Jimmy Butler’s revenge tour burning through the Eastern Conference like a blowtorch through butter, there’s another redemption story quietly simmering on the Warriors’ bench.

Tonight, Terry Stotts returns to face the team that discarded him after nearly a decade of faithful service—a Portland squad now stuck in basketball purgatory while he’s helping orchestrate Golden State’s resurrection.

Golden State Warriors vs Portland Trail Blazers

When: March 10th, 2024 | 7:00 PM PT

TV: NBC Sports Bay Area

Radio: 95.7 The Game

Remember when Portland reached the Western Conference Finals in 2019? That was Stotts’ doing, crafting an offense that maximized Damian Lillard’s talents. The reward for his troubles? Being unceremoniously dumped after a first-round exit to Denver, with Portland brass essentially blaming him for not turning water into wine with their flawed roster.

Fast forward to tonight: The Warriors are rolling on a four-game win streak, having won 11 of their last 13 since Butler’s arrival. Meanwhile, the Blazers are limping into Chase Center on the second night of a brutal back-to-back, having dropped three straight and playing their ninth game in 14 days. The basketball gods do have a sense of irony.

What makes this particularly delicious is how Stotts’ offensive fingerprints are all over this Warriors renaissance. Steve Kerr didn’t mince words when hiring his former playoff nemesis: “I always thought his teams were really well-coached, well-organized. I liked the offensive style.”

While the Blazers opted for Chauncey Billups (current record: a stellar 81-166), Stotts joined Golden State and has been working his magic behind the scenes. The Butler-Curry pairing that’s terrorizing the league? That has Stotts’ influence all over it—a blend of Curry’s gravitational pull with Butler’s battering-ram attacks to the rim creating an offensive nightmare for opponents.

As our colleagues at Blazers Edge might painfully note, Portland has spent the last three years wandering through the basketball wilderness after pushing Stotts out the door. Meanwhile, the architect of their last Conference Finals run is helping transform the Warriors into contenders again.

The poetic justice is that Stotts won’t have to say a word tonight. The scoreboard will do all the talking necessary as his offensive schemes (now supercharged with Golden State’s talent) dissect the team that decided he wasn’t good enough.

The Warriors are favored by 12 points tonight, and for good reason. Portland is exhausted, depleted (potentially missing Deandre Ayton and Deni Avdija), and facing a Warriors squad that’s found its groove and still has something to prove in the Western Conference playoff race.

But beyond the X’s and O’s, beyond Butler’s dominance and Curry’s brilliance, watch for the quiet satisfaction on Coach Stotts’ face as his offensive masterplan dismantles his former employers. In the NBA, revenge is a dish best served with a clipboard and a 20-point lead.

Don’t expect mercy—not from Butler, not from Curry, and especially not from the man Portland foolishly left behind.