With the Warriors hosting the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, the club was desperate to salvage at least one win on its early season four-game homestand—quite a challenge considering neither Draymond Green nor D’Angelo Russell would be available.
Despite the team’s early struggles, there’s been a fair amount of interest in how the youngsters would answer the bell after failing to be competitive in their first few games.
With Green and Russell currently missing in action, Eric Paschall exalted himself with an efficient performance in Saturday night’s loss to the Hornets, but as the rookie celebrated his 23rd birthday on Monday night, he came on firing on all cylinders.
The birthday boy dropped 17 points in the first quarter to help the Dubs carry a 34-32 lead into the game’s second quarter, and Stephen Curry couldn’t help but to notice, as Paschall became the first Warriors rookie to score 17 points in a quarter since Reggie Williams did so back in 2010.
“This guy @epaschall is on another level right now I love it. Birthday vibes!!!! #dubnation,” Curry tweeted in support of his young teammate.
While no game is ever won in a game’s first quarter, it seems that Warriors fans have quickly embraced the idea of developing the team’s young talent this season, and obviously, so has the franchise player. In quick order, the Dubs platoon of youngsters have gone from looking completely overmatched and underprepared to extremely competitive. And that was quite obvious on Monday night.
Paschall would end the first half with 19 points as the teams engaged in a tight battle to begin the second half.
