Stephen Curry had 48 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Golden State Warriors (13-14) lost to the Portland Trail Blazers (10-16) 136-131 on Sunday at Moda Center.
Curry made 12 threes in a game for an NBA-record fifth time in his career. He also scored 40-plus points for the 45th time since turning 30 years old, surpassing Michael Jordan in that stat to become the sole leader.
Shaedon Sharpe and Jerami Grant each had 35 points as the Blazers shot 20-of-39 from three.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s game.
Warriors Need a Trade
Curry hit a three and then had a driving layup on consecutive possessions to give the Warriors a five-point lead with 2:30 left. Once again, the Warriors collapsed from there, as they have had disastrous results in clutch games this season.
The Blazers started their closing run with a Grant three. Deni Avdija ran a pick-and-roll with Donovan Clingan, and Avdija found Grant with a bit of space because Draymond Green got caught sinking too far for fear that Clingan would get an easy basket.
The next possession, Brandin Podziemski got called for a moving screen as Curry was relocating to the wing for a three.
Then Avdija rejected the screen, drove right by De’Anthony Melton and scored on Green in the paint for an easy and-1.
Curry hit another go-ahead three the next possession.
Then Avdija went around Melton again and dropped it off to Grant for another and-one.
The Blazers scored nine points in three possessions to regain the lead, and they never lost it.
I wrote all this out because two things stood out in that stretch. First, Melton (6’2