Now THAT is Warriors basketball.

Entering the half down 17 to the Portland Trailblazers, the Dubs rallied some late 2nd quarter energy into a 3rd that could only be described as “vintage”. Golden State brought out the box-and-one against Damian Lillard and put the pressure on the basket relentlessly to outscore Portland 39-17 in the third frame, wrapping up the game with 4th quarter dominance that hasn’t been seen in the Bay in quite awhile now.

This was a bit of an uncommon method of victory for the NBA’s leading 3-point shooting team. The Warriors put in 66 points in the paint and it paid off in big ways. After a slow start to the game, Klay Thompson (who’s been on something of a heater lately) caught fire late, finishing with 23 points on 8-for-21 shooting after starting off just 2-for-12 in the first half. Jordan Poole came alive late as well, using his crafty handle to get into the lane against the Blazers’ slower wings.

The x-factor, however, as he’s been all season, was Donte DiVincenzo. DDV’s 21 points were excellent, but he grabbed 3 offensive rebounds and dished out 3 assists, all while serving as a play connector and taking on the point-of-attack defender role against Lillard. The Warriors held Dame, fresh off a 71-point game in his last contest, to his lowest points total in over a month.

And to cap it all off, Jonathan Kuminga (alongside some excellent defense and midrange shooting) did this:

The Warriors, with both the Mavericks and Clippers losing tonight, overtake the Western Conference’s 5th seed and are only a game behind the Phoenix Suns for the 4th. While it’s unlikely they catch the league’s best offense in Sacramento, it’s still a possibility now that Steph Curry has been set to be re-evaluated tomorrow.

Curry scrimmaged with the G-League Santa Cruz Warriors today, meaning he’s likely to see some ramp-up and make his comeback soon. With Golden State’s third-straight win, his return could build on some already-sizable momentum the team’s got going into the season’s final stretch.

This kind of win, while Portland is missing some size in their frontcourt, is exactly the kind of thing the Dubs needed to see and hopefully will continue seeing strategically as they continue. Missing their two best drivers in Curry and Andrew Wiggins, they relentlessly attacked the basket and locked in on defense. Those two elements will be key to their success moving forward.

With the standings still so close and less than 20 games left to play, more and more contests in the league are going to look like playoff basketball, and while they’ve lived plenty by the three this year, the Warriors have also died plenty by it too. When the margin for error gets slimmer, they need to continue executing their offensive processes instead of hunting killshots constantly on the perimeter.

The stage is set for a late run to secure their playoff seeding. Steve Kerr said in his postgame press conference that they came into this game “with a different gameplan than usual”, meaning there are adjustments that have been made that should help propel the Warriors into the postseason.

And once they get there, it’s plenty up for debate whether or not there’s a team in this league that can beat a healthy Dubs team in 7.

(Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)