The shine from the Portland Trail Blazers’ Utah Jazz preseason game quickly faded Wednesday night at the Moda Center. The visiting Golden State Warriors defeated the Blazers, ending the game midway through the third quarter on their way to a 139–104 win.

The performance marked the worst season-opening loss in Portland franchise history and prompted Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups to talk about effort and focus after Game 1 of 82.

“They beat us on every level, man,” Billups said at the post-game press conference. “Every loose ball they were the first team on the ground. … They beat us to the ground after goals, after misses. Every facet of the game, they beat us.”

The start of a new NBA season brings inherent optimism and fanfare, even for a team with low expectations like the Blazers. Fans have new players around them, like promising forward Deni Avdija and lottery center Donovan Clingan. The new record shows potential. After a jubilant preseason finale – hey, maybe the Blazers have more juice than anyone thought.

Wednesday night was a hard slap in the face for all of this. An emphatic early refutation of hopes that this team could be more competitive than expected. A grim reminder of what is likely to happen this season. The Blazers won’t play every game like this, but there are more blowouts on the table in what will be another long campaign. Brace yourself for 81 more.

“I think maybe the first game of the season we were a little bit shocked,” said Avdija, who also said the team didn’t play with the same “edge” as they did against Utah.

“We were probably too excited to tell you the truth,” starting center Deandre Ayton added. “It was jitters everywhere, man.”

The excitement led to a promising start. The Blazers jumped out to an early 10-3 lead behind multiple three-pointers and an 0-9 start from the opposition. That scoring quickly came to a halt, but Portland still kept Golden State and Stephen Curry’s high-powered offense at bay. After the first quarter the game was tied at 21-21.

Then the veteran Warriors slowly overwhelmed the younger Blazers. The 3-pointers started falling in bunches from Buddy Hield and others as GSW shot 20-48 on 3s overall. The Blazers continually sent double teams to Curry. He and his teammates continually broke up the double teams, leading to breakdowns and open layups. Curry didn’t shoot his best, but still recorded 17 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. The Warriors shot 51.6% from the field and tallied 38 assists.

“They were really sharing the ball. … Everyone was a threat that drove to the rim and confused us,” Ayton said. “That really affected us.”

A tie after one quickly became a 62-50 halftime deficit for Portland, which quickly became a 95-67 deficit with 1:39 left in the third. At that point, after another Golden State fastbreak layup, Billups called for a timeout as light boos poured down from the upper rafters. The game finished early.

Ayton and Avdija both cited a lack of defensive communication as Golden State turned the Blazers. “It was just really quiet,” Ayton said. Billups was a repeat of previous preseason games and had to point out a lack of transition defense. On multiple occasions, Golden State players beat Blazers defenders across the floor for easy layups.

“It was a lack of focus in my opinion,” Billups said. “We talked about it. We knew that was a strength of theirs, and it certainly paid off big time tonight.”

The story wasn’t much better on offense. Ayton, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons, arguably Portland’s three best players, combined to go 16-42 from the floor for 41 points. Portland shot 39.1% from the field and 23.5% on 3s. Scoot Henderson led the team in scoring with 22 points, but that came on 7-18 shooting.

“I don’t think one guy on our team played well in the game,” Billups said.

As hard as it sounds, that line can be the consolation of losing 35 points. When is it hard to win no one has a good game, which is quite rare everyone on an NBA roster combines for a collective stinker. Billups also said this lack of effort was an anomaly after a strong camp and preseason.

“If I’m honest, this is the very first time in a month that I can tell you that we’ve had a lack of focus or a team playing harder than us,” Billups said.

The other consolation is that it’s only one game. Ayton called the loss “embarrassing” for a season opener, but also said the team would go back to the drawing board and take responsibility for its performance. Billups called it “disappointing,” but also said it’s not “the end of the world.” These are the best times to teach, the coach said.

Avdija reiterated similar points, saying the team would view the loss as a “learning experience.” All three postgame speakers pointed out that it’s a long season and this was just the first night.

“I’m not exaggerating on this loss,” Avdija said. ‘I’ll be honest: it might look ugly. It may seem like we have given up, but we are not giving up.”

More game notes

• The season opener marked Terry Stotts’ return to the Moda Center, where he was the Blazers head coach from 2012 to 2021. Stotts is now an assistant on Golden State’s staff under head coach Steve Kerr. When Kerr was available to the media before the game, I asked Kerr if he and Stotts had reflected on their head coaching battles over the years when Stotts was in Portland. Here’s Kerr’s answer:

I think we met three or four times in the playoffs. We’ve had a few discussions about some of those matchups. There’s a reason I hired him. I always thought his teams were very well coached and well organized. I liked the attacking style. I think our vision of the game is similar in terms of player and ball movement, but they did some different things than we did, and I wanted to incorporate some of those things into our team.

• Stotts’ return came with a tribute video on the jumbotron and a nice round of applause from the crowd. Here’s the end of that moment, where you can see Stotts sending some love back to the Portland fans.

• In his NBA regular season debut, Clingan recorded two points on 1-2 shooting, two rebounds, one block, one steal and one turnover in 13 minutes off the bench.
• Kris Murray (10 minutes), Rayan Rupert (17 minutes), Henderson (28 minutes) and Clingan were the four reserves who saw primary rotation minutes. Jabari Walker (seven minutes) didn’t check in until late in the third quarter, when the Warriors’ lead had grown to nearly 30.