OAKLAND — Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts joked before Friday night’s exhibition finale that the only way to beat the Warriors this season might be to score 150 points.
“If you get 150 you’ve got a good chance,” he said, “because I don’t think you can hold them to 80.”
Golden State made it six in a row to close the exhibition schedule, posting a 107-96 win over Portland. Stephen Curry, who had 32 points two nights earlier, scored 28 by halftime and finished with 35.
The Warriors open the regular season Tuesday at home against San Antonio and their offense, boosted by the addition of four-time NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant, is the talk of the league. Durant had 28 against the Blazers, who whittled away much of a 21-point Warriors lead in the fourth quarter before succumbing.
Even with all that firepower, Warriors coach Steve Kerr believes his team will more than hold its own at the other end of the floor.
The Warriors will have a different defensive personality without rim protectors Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli, both let go to make salary cap space for Durant. But there will be no surrender on the defensive end.
“I do like the potential,” Kerr said. “We’ve gotten better since the first couple exhibition games. I think as long as we’re committed and we’re playing hard and playing together at that end we should be a good defensive team.”
The defensive schemes are largely the same, Kerr said. In particular, the Warriors will continue to make switches on the perimeter to disrupt their opponent. But the importance of staying in front of the ballhandler will be more important than ever.
Bogut, now playing in Dallas, blocked 114 shots last year. That security blanket is gone.
“You can’t ever just assume somebody’s going to clean it up behind you,” Kerr said. “Bogut gave us that luxury at times. He and Festus … they’d clean up a mistake.”
Of new center Zaza Pachulia, he said, “He doesn’t jump that well but he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s a really good defender. He’s in the right position all the time.”
The Warriors’ defense will start on the perimeter, and that’s where Friday’s game turned.
The Blazers led 22-6 after 5 minutes, but the Warriors began to claw back after Andre Iguodala came off the bench.
“When Draymond (Green) and Andre are out there together causing havoc our defense can change the game,” Kerr said, “and that’s what happened tonight.”
Green said the Warriors understand their mandate on defense.
“We have to use our quickness, use our length, scramble around out there,” he said. “It takes five guys on the defensive end. You don’t win a championship on the offensive end. Got to get it done on defense, and I think we will.”
Stotts said the Warriors will miss Bogut and Ezeli, but he isn’t feeling sorry for them.
“I think they did all right,” he said of the Warriors’ offseason roster shuffle. “I think they’re going to be OK.”
* Klay Thompson sounded off Friday morning about an ESPN article that quoted an unnamed Warriors source saying the team “played like a bunch of cowards” in Game 5 of the NBA Finals last year after Green was suspended.
Kerr echoed that reaction before the game.
“It upset me, too. I don’t know who said that. I guarantee is wasn’t any of our coaching staff. I’d be shocked if it was anybody in basketball management,” Kerr said. “We don’t do that. Nobody ever said that to me, `Those guys played like cowards.’ I have no idea where that came from.”
Thompson’s complaint was with the anonymous nature of the comment.
“If you call someone a coward, how are you not going to put your name on that quote?” he asked after the team’s morning shootaround. “It’s easy to point at someone and call them a coward behind like a shade or a shield. But why don’t you put your name to it and then you can call us cowards? That’s fine.”
Kerr’s suggested reporting has changed, and agreed with Thompson’s reaction to using an unnamed source on such an explosive quote.
“What is an unnamed source? Who are sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking?” he said. “What used to be a credible source … standards are a little bit lower now.”
* The Warriors showed a video tribute to Ezeli, now with the Blazers, during the first timeout. That drew huge cheers from the Oracle crowd, which he acknowledged with a big smile and wave to the fans.
