PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Sixers are facing two of the NBA’s highest scorers, including the league’s top offensive threat, in back-to-back games. After taking on Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers on Saturday, they're up against Stephen Curry and the Warriors on Sunday.
Curry ranks first in the NBA with 30.2 points per game. Lillard is fifth overall with 25.5 points. The Sixers mapped out a similar game plan for both point guards.
“Our pickup points have to be high,” head coach Brett Brown said Saturday. “We have to identify those two early. And anything that has a tiny window of separation, you’re rolling the dice because they don’t need much to get their shots off.”
On Saturday, the Sixers held Lillard below his season average to 16 points in the Trail Blazers' 105-102 victory that came down to the wire. Instead of Lillard pulling off late-game heroics, it was his backcourt partner C.J. McCollum who made the game-winning play. McCollum led all players with 25 points.
Defending Curry will be daunting enough for the shorthanded Sixers. Even if they limit him as they did in their first meeting this season — Curry scored 23 points — they still have to worry about shooting guard Klay Thompson. He scored a game-high 32 points in the Warriors’ last-second win in January.
“It’s a track meet, it’s lots of threes, it’s it’s pace, it’s spread,” Brown said. “We have our defensive work cut out for us on both nights.”
What Brown sees differentiating their matchup against the 38-36 Trail Blazers from the 65-7 Warriors is the number of weapons across the rosters. The Warriors' successful smallball lineup has been nicknamed the "death lineup." Draymond Green, who can play several positions, ranks second in the NBA this season with 11 triple-doubles. The Warriors as a team rank first in points per game (115.4), three-point shooting (41.6 percent) and assists (29.1).
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The list of their versatile attributes goes on.
"When you go into the gym [Sunday], you’re going to see a bunch of other names outside of these two talented guards," Brown said. "The depth that Golden State has that Portland doesn’t have right now is dramatic, it’s overwhelming. That’s why you’re looking at a team that has a chance to win the amount of games that it seems like they’re on track to win."