The Golden State Warriors had a perfect preseason and then got to start the 2024-2025 NBA season by taking on a Portland Trail Blazers team that doesn’t appear to be very competitive this year. It was fair to expect an emphatic victory.

And an emphatic win was exactly what the Dubs delivered, even if it took a bit of a detour in the first quarter.

Steve Kerr opted to open the year with a big starting lineup, with the starting five being Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. And the early results weren’t exactly what Kerr was looking for.

The Dubs couldn’t buy a basket to start the game with miss after miss, prompting Kerr to call a timeout just four minutes into the game, with the Dubs down 10-3 and all their points coming from free throws. The ball was moving and the looks were good, they just weren’t falling… and that continued after the timeout. Curry missed a triple on the first possession – his third missing three of the game – and the team would miss their first nine attempts from the field before a go-ahead layup with less than 6:30 remaining finally broke the cold streak.

That didn’t take the lid off the basket. The Warriors still couldn’t make shots and were 2-for-15 from the field at one point. But the defense tightened, limiting Portland’s tight look. And finally, with just under two minutes to go, Buddy Hield jumped free for a three and whipped it through the net… his first points as a Warrior, the team’s first three in nine tries and, remarkably, their first made jump shot of the game. And perhaps most importantly, it tied the game. Hield also made a three on the next possession, and although the Dubs shot just 6-for-23 from the field (and 2-for-12 from deep), they were tied 21-21 after the first quarter.

And after that it just wasn’t competitive anymore.

The five-man unit that started the second quarter – De’Anthony Melton, Moses Moody, Kuminga, Kyle Anderson and Kevon Looney – was impenetrable on defense, even as the offense remained cold (and Moody had to leave early after making three quick points collected). errors). But while the defense remained strong, the offense finally started to turn things around. Hield carried much of the offense, while Brandin Podziemski’s energy and effort opened up the field for the Dubs and got extra possessions. They led 44-37 with just over four minutes left, prompting Portland to call a timeout that yielded little. Green picked up a technical foul late in the half that seemed to set the team in motion, and soon – led by a blast from Wiggins – it was a double-digit lead. With the energy and aggression flowing freely, the Warriors were down 41 points in the quarter and held a 62-50 lead at halftime.

And then the Warriors came out to play in the third quarter. Curry, who had made just one shot — and no threes — in the first half, nailed a triple early in the third quarter. A 5-0 run in Portland brought the Blazers back to within 10, but then the Warriors remembered how many good things happened when they passed and cut. So they passed and cut, rattling off a 10-3 run to make it an 80-63 lead, leading to a Portland timeout.

The timeout accomplished nothing. Curry came out of it. with another three (his third of the quarter, on as many attempts), followed by a Hield three and a Hield three-point play. It was a 19-3 run and a 26-point lead. They were different teams playing at different levels, and there was no point in Portland even flirting with closing the game again.

And they wouldn’t do that. The Dubs led 99-72 after the third quarter, resting all of their starters in the fourth quarter – remarkably, none played more than 25 minutes. They reached the fourth and won 139-104… the largest Opening Night margin of victory in franchise history.

While Kerr had hinted that the Warriors would go back to a 10-man rotation, it was 12 players who had meaningful runs on Wednesday, as everyone but Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos played non-garbage minutes. Hield led the way with 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting and shot 5-for-7 from deep as he seemed able to transform the offense. Despite a shortened preseason, Wiggins was fantastic: he scored 20 points and four rebounds, shot 4-for-7 from distance and played strong defense. Curry finished one rebound shy of a triple-double (17 points, nine rebounds, and 10 assists), while Podziemski had a very Podziemski game: he didn’t score, but he grabbed seven rebounds, had four assists, drew a charge, and finished with a game-high plus/minus of +34 in just 25 minutes.

The ball moved brilliantly – Golden State had 38 assists, even if they were a bit sloppy at times – and they beat Portland 58-41.

I can’t ask for much more in an opener.