On Tuesday night, the Warriors will play their first of a back-to-back with the second game on the road in Portland. This will be the team’s first back-to-back on the schedule since DeMarcus Cousins’ debut with the team in late January — and because of this, Cousins will sit out on the second half. Cousins has played 10 games and will play his 11th in Utah before sitting out for the first time this season. He’s had some very good moments and there have been some growing pains — many of the latter on the defensive end of the floor. Through 10 games, Boogie is averaging 14 points and 6 rebounds in just under 23 minutes per game. His per 36 numbers aren’t too far off his career numbers, but it’s a few shades off of where he’s been the last few years.<doc-sep>Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins will rest Wednesday night’s game in Portland. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said he doesn’t currently have any plans to sit Cousins on the rough end of back-to-back sets beyond Wednesday. A few weeks ago, Kerr, Cousins and Dr. Rick Celebrini — the Warriors’ director of sports medicine and performance — pinpointed the Trail Blazers game as an opportunity for Cousins to rest. "This was the plan," Kerr said. "We’ll pick things up after the (All-Star) break and see how it all goes." In addition to Cousins, point guard Shaun Livingston will sit Wednesday in Portland. Golden State rests Livingston, 33, periodically to ensure he is at his best come the playoffs. Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron<doc-sep>While the Utah Jazz put up a valiant effort, it wasn’t enough to slow the Golden State Warriors’ march towards their title defense. In spite of all the extracurricular noise, this team has done everything they needed to in order to set themselves up for a strong finish to the season. Just one game left before the All Star break, so strap in for a battle as the Dubs face yet another potential playoff opponent in Portland. On the back end of a back-to-back, the Warriors aren’t even flying DeMarcus Cousins and Shaun Livingston up to Portland, making a challenging opponent even tougher. Game Details WHO: Portland Trail Blazers (33-23) vs. Golden State Warriors (41-15) WHERE: Moda Center, Portland, OR WHEN: Wednesday February 13, 2019; 7:30pm WATCH: ESPN; CSNBA (?) Portland coming off back-to-back losses featuring a blown 19-point lead in Dallas and a bad game at Oklahoma City The Portland Trail Blazers are in a weird place. They are a perennial playoff team, but just haven’t been anywhere near getting over the hump separating the “good” from “elite” in the NBA. This season has been no different. After getting swept out of the first round of the playoffs last year, Portland stood pat - and though they’ve made some minor changes around the edges, the team didn’t add any significant pieces ahead of the trade deadline last week. So, we’ll be looking at more of the same familiar team tonight. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum still lead the team in scoring (26 and 21 points per game, respectively), and Jusuf Nurkic is a solid - if not dominant big - who can be counted on to chip in his usual 15 points and 10 rebounds or so per night. Beyond that, the Blazers have a number of useful players that are just on the wrong side of dominance - players like Al-Farouq Aminu, Seth Curry, and Rodney Hood are all nice enough, but don’t really move the needle for a team languishing just below the NBA elite. The Blazers’ approach to the trade deadline was very much on brand here too; Portland made two trades this season: Nik Stauskas , Wade Baldwin IV , and two 2nds to Cleveland for Rodney Hood , , and two 2nds to Cleveland for Caleb Swanigan to Sacramento for Skal Labissiere I know they weren’t losing any critical players, but neither do these moves look especially helpful in advancing the Blazers beyond the team that got swept out of the playoffs last season. The fourth-seeded team from Portland is currently sitting a full four games back from the third seed (OKC Thunder), essentially tied with the Houston Rockets with just one and two games separating them from the 5th and 6th seeds. No game is “must-win” at this point in the season, but rest assured that the Blazers are going to want this win in order to prove that they belong with the playoff elites of the league. Klay’s finger, Boogie’s numbers, and the Curry /Durant pick-and-roll Klay Thompson gave us all a scare last night after a gross-looking finger injury. Sure, it’s his non-shooting hand, and he re-entered the game, but the one thing that seems like it could truly derail the Warriors’ title defense is injuries. Dislocated on his push off of Mitchell pic.twitter.com/0tNkW2KfvY — Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 13, 2019 No word yet if Thompson will be held out tonight, or even play limited minutes. The team referred to the injury as a “sprain” in spite of the video evidence suggesting a dislocation. I’m no doctor, but I’ve seen enough Die Hard to know that you can just pop that sucker right back in and keep fighting. DeMarcus Cousins is on a tear. Over the last five games, he’s scored: 18, 15, 18, 7, and 12 points; and pulled down 10 rebounds twice. Along with his five assists last night, it looks like Cousins is going to be exactly the problem that other teams and fans bemoaned when he signed here. After some early foul troubles, Cousins is now the one putting pressure on the other team not to foul him. For an already deadly roster, Cousins is exactly the sort of added threat that is the force multiplier that could push the team back to another Championship. It’s also worth noting that Kerr played him 28 minutes last night, the highest such total of the season - but likely did so expecting the night off tonight. One of the fans’ favorite past times seems to be micromanaging the Curry and Durant pick-and-roll, so I present the following for your consideration: I do think there's an issue with the Curry/KD PNR they need to work out. Curry has a hard time making a clean pass. He needs a clear angle and, vs. a trap, that's tough for him to get. We've all seen how the hook over the top can work against him. They need reps to master that — Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) February 13, 2019 We know this is still a work in progress, but for such a basic (and effective) play, the Warriors’ best players continue to look a little awkward running it. Complicating this is the fact that we’ve added a significant new wrinkle. KD, Steph, DMC run the double punch play twice down the stretch. DMC short circuits it twice to drive to the rim instead of feeding KD in the post. It’s either a DMC custom version or he’s freelancing... — Eric Apricot (@EricApricot) February 13, 2019 Thankfully, there’s still plenty of time left in the season to iron out these kinks. Kerr generally eschews this play style, but it is undeniably effective - especially given the caliber of players involved here. Don’t be shocked if you see Kerr slacken the restraints a bit. We don’t want to still be figuring this stuff out in June.<doc-sep>The Golden State Warriors will face the Portland Trail Blazers tonight in their last game before the 2019 NBA All-Star break. As detailed in our preview of the game, veterans DeMarcus Cousins and Shaun Livingston will be out for tonight’s game on account of the need to rest. However, this evening, Warriors coach Steve Kerr announced that veteran wingman Andre Iguodala will also be out for tonight’s game due to load management rest, as reported by radio man Tim Roye (among others). Andre Iguodala, DeMarcus Cousins and Shaun Livingston will not play in Portland tonight (rest, load management). On the radio side, @rcdavisNBA is probable (stress management). — Tim Roye (@warriorsvox) February 14, 2019 As Duby Dub Dubs wrote in the preview, missing these vets on the back end of a back-to-back set against a playoff opponent like Portland will make “...a challenging game tougher...” than it might otherwise be. Nevertheless, the upside — depending on how optimistic your worldview skews — is that we get to see Kevon Looney back in the starting lineup in place of Cousins tonight. Steve Kerr says Andre Iguodala (rest/soreness) will not play vs. Blazers. Shaun Livingston and DeMarcus Cousins (rest) did not travel. Kevon Looney will start. — Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) February 14, 2019 Feel free to discuss your thoughts on the matchup, lineups with the veterans out, or observations of the game as it happens in the comments below.<doc-sep>
Th Golden State Warriors are currently gearing up to take on the Utah Jazz on Tuesday evening while the Western Conference powerhouse will have a quick turnaround come Wednesday. As a result of the team’s Wednesday evening matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Warriors will be without the services of starting center DeMarcus Cousins and backup point guard Shaun Livingston for the mid-week Western Conference clash. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made such news official earlier in the day on Tuesday, noting that the tandem would not be playing due to Wednesday’s game serving as the second half of a back-to-back. Steve Kerr said DeMarcus Cousins and Shaun Livingston will not play tomorrow vs Portland on second night of back to back — Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) February 13, 2019 The 28-year-old Cousins is currently in the midst of his first season in the bay area while already making 10 games as a member of the Warriors, all of which have been starts. He is now averaging 14.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.2 blocks across 22.9 minutes per game. The 33-year-old Livingston has remained with Golden State since back in 2014-2015 and has appeared in 44 games for the franchise this time around. The veteran signal caller is averaging 4.4 points, an even two rebounds, 1.9 assists and 0.5 steals across just 15.3 minutes per game this season. Heading into Tuesday’s matchup against the Jazz, the Warriors will find themselves atop the Western Conference, thanks to the surging franchise’s stellar 40-15 record. Though the Warriors are clearly the best team in the NBA with this year’s All-Star break looming, there are more than a few teams in the Western Conference that could upend Golden State come playoff time — the Trail Blazers included.