It wasn’t until 5:33 left in the fourth quarter, when Thompson nailed three of his game-high 27 points to give Golden State their first lead of the game, which led to a 2-0 series lead after the 110-99 victory at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
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After McCollum and Allen Crabbe stabilized the Trail Blazers with a pair of hoops to expand the lead back to nine, Golden State immediately countered with a nine-point flurry to draw even for the first time since 3-3 on a Thompson 3-pointer with 6:44 to go.
Neither Klay Thompson nor Draymond Green had played particularly well through three quarters, Lillard and the Blazers were answering every run the Warriors could muster and, with Curry’s return looming, a 1-1 series tie didn’t seem that bad for Golden State. “We’ve been down and out before. That effort there in the fourth quarter is what it’s going to take to beat this team”.
In the Eastern Conference the Miami Heat drew first blood in their semi-final series with a 102-96 overtime thriller against the Toronto Raptors.
NOTES: Warriors SG Stephen Curry (sprained right knee) worked out following his team’s morning shootaround at Oracle Arena but did not warm up before the game.
Draymond Green had a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Andre Iguodala had 15 points off the bench.
That’s when Steve Kerr made a huge switch and took Andrew Bogut out of the game and replaced him with the more nimble Festuz Ezeli, who came in and absolutely changed the dynamic of the game. But three good quarters against the Golden State Warriors just isn’t good enough.
The Golden State Warriors can all but put this series to bed with a victory and a sweet 3-0 lead. “It hurts”, Lillard said, after Portland was outscored 34-12 in the fourth quarter and held without a field goal for more than five minutes down the stretch.
The Raptors host the Heat again on Thursday, and Warriors are in Portland on Saturday. Golden State trailed by 11 points in the fourth quarter before Thompson and Co. pulled the comeback.
Portland has a team full of gunners and when they are feeling comfortable and confident, and they can put up points like the Warriors.
Damian Lillard topscored for Portland with 25 points, adding six assists and four rebounds.
The decisive period was the fourth quarter.
Q. What did you see from the Warriors defense in that fourth quarter particularly on Lillard? He scored 17 points in the third quarter, and it wasn’t almost enough. “If he’s not and he’s at 80, 90 percent and they say, no, he can play, he should be fine and we’re not risking anything, then we’ll let him play”. They can’t live behind the arc the way they did in Game 2.
Al-Farouq Aminu and Lillard hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 run, and Portland went into the locker room at halftime with a 59-51 lead. They kept trying to go inside, with a shooting percentage for the match of only just over 40, a rebound margin of ten, and centre Mason Plumlee shooting zero of seven from the field. We can get a little momentum on how we played in Game 2.
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Whether Curry plays or not, the Trail Blazers are an extremely good home team that shoots a high percentage.
