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Steph Curry and Buddy Hield fuel opening night victory – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

Posted on by Vanessa
Steph Curry and Buddy Hield fuel opening night victory – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

BOX score

After shedding some rust on opening night, the Warriors defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 139-104 on Wednesday night at the Moda Center to open the 2024-25 NBA season.

The Warriors couldn't get a shot off early and were tied with the Blazers at 21-21 early in the second quarter. Then Golden State found a new gear and couldn't be stopped. From the second quarter to the final whistle, the Warriors outscored the Blazers 118-83. Their 35-point victory is the largest margin of victory in a season opener in franchise history.

Steph Curry missed a rebound to record his 11th career triple-double in the regular season. The Warriors' superstar point guard finished the game with 17 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and two steals. He had nine assists before his first turnover.

Curry sat the entire fourth quarter and scored a plus-23 in 25 minutes.

Andrew Wiggins added 20 points and made four 3-pointers starting alongside Curry in the backcourt, but Buddy Hield was the biggest story of the night. Hield scored a game-high 22 points in 15 minutes off the bench in his Warriors regular-season debut. He shot 8 of 12 from the field, 5 of 7 from deep and grabbed five hustle rebounds.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors' dominant win that set the tone for the start of the regular season against the resurgent Blazers.

First look at starting five

An hour and a half before the game began, the anticipation surrounding who would be coach Steve Kerr's starting lineup for the Warriors' season opener was finally over. Entering his 11th season at the helm, Kerr decided to go big – by Warriors standards – playing off Curry, Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The idea is to have a long, athletic group that can shut down opponents defensively while the offense revolves around Curry. And then the Warriors started the game ice cold by missing their first nine shots. Her first score didn't come until 6:28, making it 12-7 when Curry found a sprinting Green for an easy layup.

Kerr's starting five played just over five minutes in the first quarter and was down seven. The Blazers outscored them 12-5 as the starters failed to make a single throw in their first run together. They didn't play together again in the second quarter, but were the first five on the field at the start of the second half. Fittingly, Curry made his first three-pointer of the game on the Warriors' first possession of the third quarter.

Thanks to a revved-up defense and shots finally falling, the Warriors' starting five were a plus-5 overall in the third quarter. In total, they played just over 11 minutes together and had a minus-2, outscoring them 25-23. Every starter except Kuminga had a positive plus/minus.

Built through depth

Depth was a key storyline throughout training camp and the Warriors' six preseason games. The Warriors are deep, really deep. So deep that Kerr used eleven players in the first quarter and there were twelve at the start of the second quarter. The order in which Kerr went to his bench was also somewhat surprising.

Hield, whom Kerr described as his sixth man, was the first to replace Kuminga. Shortly thereafter, Gary Payton II came in for Jackson-Davis. The next two were Brandin Podziemski and Kevon Looney, followed later by De'Anthony Melton and then Kyle Anderson.

Moses Moody opened the second quarter, setting up a 12-man rotation with only Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos remaining on the sideline.

Before halftime after a strong second quarter, the Warriors' bench had outscored the Blazers' reserves 27:11. Podziemski had a plus rating of 18, Hield had a plus rating of 13, Payton had a plus rating of 11 and Looney had a plus rating of 10. When the stunning victory ended, Podziemski had a plus rating of 34, Hield had a plus rating of 20, Payton had a plus rating of 26 and Looney has a plus rating of 13. The depth served its purpose.

Both Waters and Santos played the final five minutes and the Warriors' bench outscored the Blazers 70-37.

Buddy bucket

Don't call him the new Splash Brother. Don't get cute and call him Splash Cousin. But there's no denying that Hield can be in a hurry.

Hield hit not one, not two, not three, but four 3-pointers in the first half, giving him 14 points in his first two quarters with the Warriors.

Starting last season, this is exactly what the Warriors envisioned with Klay Thompson. A flamethrower off the bench, dangerous enough to completely change a game. Instead, they added someone three years younger who never missed a game.

During the Warriors' perfect 6-0 preseason, Hield became the Warriors' third-leading scorer with 12.2 points per game while shooting an absurd 48.7 percent on 3-pointers. He then scored 22 points in his regular-season debut and made 71.4 percent of his seven 3-point attempts. His five three-pointers are the second-most ever made by a player in his Warriors debut.

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