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SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday morning, Warriors rookie Eric Paschall brushed off any concerns about his 3-point shot.
“Oh yeah, it’s gonna come.”
After missing all five 3-pointers he attempted in Saturday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Paschall made his first three 3-pointers Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers, four of six total, en route to 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting, 13 rebounds, and a 127-118 victory for the Warriors.
Oh, and it was his birthday. He brushed that off, too.
“I’m not a big birthday person,” Paschall said before the game. “I just go on with the days and if it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday.”
Instead of celebrating his birthday, Paschall, 23, and the Warriors celebrated their second win of the season, and the first at Chase Center. The victory avoids the first 0-5 start at home since the 1997-98 season.
Tweeted Warriors guard Stephen Curry, the last Warriors rookie to record at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in a game: “This guy (Eric Paschall) is on another level right now I love it. Birthday vibes!!!!”
Without Curry (fractured hand), D’Angelo Russell (right ankle) and Draymond Green (sprained finger), the Warriors again leaned on a young lineup of newcomers. Specifically, Paschall and guard Ky Bowman.
In his second game as starting point guard, Bowman, playing on a two-way contract, finished with 19 points and eight assists in 37 minutes.
The turning point of the game occurred with 6:12 left in the fourth quarter, when Bowman got into a heated exchange with Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside. After making a layup to put the Warriors up 104-99, Bowman was shoved by Whiteside in the chest.
Bowman, 6-foot-1, took issue, and got into the 7-footer’s face — or at least as close as he could get to his face. The scene fired up the Warriors, who then completed a 12-0 run to take a controlling lead in the game. At the final buzzer, a fired-up Paschall chest bumped guard Damion Lee and dapped up an excited Green.
“I had the hot hand tonight,” Paschall said. “It just feels good to get a win. Like I said, we got to put a full game together, we got to keep playing hard, have fun. And I feel like, tonight, we had fun. We had fun playing together.”
The Trail Blazers were paced by guard Damian Lillard, who finished with 39 points on 15-of-26 shooting, and Whiteside, who logged 22 points and 11 rebounds.
Next, the Warriors will travel to Houston to play the Rockets on Wednesday.
A few more thoughts from the game…
1. Back to Paschall. He talks about confidence a lot. He said he’s been a scorer his entire life but, during his first few years at Villanova, was asked to be a defender. It wasn’t until his senior year, and his rookie season, that he was able to embrace a scoring mentality.
“You got to feel like you’re the best player out there to play this game. It’s a dog eat dog world and, in the NBA, if you’re not that aggressive, you’re going to get eaten alive. There’s some real killers out there.
“Like tonight with (Lillard), he had 39. If you don’t come back at him, if you’re scared, you’re gonna be eaten alive. So I feel like you have to go out there and feel like you’re the best anyway.”
Dude, Paschall was the steal of the draft… pic.twitter.com/fVHPR4QqdC
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) November 5, 2019
2. The Warriors are getting to the point where they may have to make a decision on Bowman, who is currently on a two-way deal. At this rate, his 45 days of big-league eligibility will expire by mid-December.
He’ll never be an All-Star or even a regular starter, but the equation for carving out a role in the league as a backup point guard is simple: play good defense and make open shots.
Bowman talks a lot about picking up at 94 feet. He likes to play defense and he did a fairly good job of it against a tough Portland backcourt.
He also made nine of his 14 shot attempts, but just one of his three 3-point attempts. He knows he needs to work on his 3-point shot to stay in the league and he’s working on it.
We’ve already seen how one or two injuries can thrust Bowman into a starting role. The Warriors could use him as a steady backup. They can clear a roster spot by trading a player into another team’s cap space after the free agents they signed this past summer become trade eligible on Dec. 15.
3. A minute into the fourth quarter, Omari Spellman was blindsided by a pass thrown his way by Alec Burks. The ball bounced off his hands and ended up in the hands of Portland forward Skal Labissiere, who flushed the easy transition dunk. On the next play down, the Warriors fed Spellman in the post. He hit a clean turnaround jumper from the low block. That’s a good sign.
Spellman has a reputation for being an emotional player, and gaffes like not being ready for a pass have marginalized him in the past. As such, coaches have been preaching a “short memory” since training camp. This was an example of that.
4. Green, Russell and Thompson were all on the bench, celebrating the Warriors’ first win at Chase Center.
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