When Golden State visits Portland, Damian Lillard and the Blazers have the Warriors’ number. Though the Warriors shot better percentage from the field, the Blazers would still add a point to their lead going into the fourth and final quarter.
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After scouring the video of their Game 3 loss to the Trail Blazers, the Warriors came away unimpressed not with only with their effort but also with how casually they dismissed their offensive principles. Damian Lillard was a menace, dropping a playoff high 40 points on those marauding Bay Area shit horses, much to the chagrin of the depressingly high volume of Golden State Warrior fans in attendance at the erstwhile Rose Garden.
One stat: The Warriors scored an outrageous 120 points per 100 possessions when Curry was on the floor during the regular season, but only 101.9 points per 100 possessions when he wasn’t. “I wanted to come out and be aggressive and leave it all out here and that’s what I did”.
Kerr said Curry had not yet begun campaigning to play.
But Curry, the reigning Most Valuable Player, has not played in this series due to a sprained knee.
“They lost their rim protector (Whiteside) and we lost ours”, said Raptors coach Dwane Casey.
They are up 2-1 in their second-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, who won Game 3 120-108 on Saturday.
The Raptors lead the series 2-1. He’s expected to miss Game 4 in the Western Conference Semifinals series against the Portland Trailblazers, though he is practicing with the team, finally.
The 6-3 point guard out of Weber State joins Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James as the only players since 2000 to go for at least 40 points, 10 assists in a playoff game. He seemed to gain confidence as the fourth quarter wore on, burying back-to-back three-pointers at one point to finish 8-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Kerr is confident that his medical staff will ensure that a 100% healthy Curry would return to the court soon.
But as good as Green and the Warriors are, sometimes there’s simply no replacement for Curry. The 30-year-old point guard with a long history of injuries had been averaging close to 30 minutes per contest as a starter.
“That’ll be good to have to figure that out”, Kerr said.
“We didn’t play with that sense of desperation”, he added.
RAPTORS 95, HEAT 91: Shaking off playoff struggles, Kyle Lowry scored five straight Toronto points to break a late tie and lift the Raptors at Miami in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“When we come home, we feel unbeatable for some reason”. The Trail Blazers’ point guard scored 14 of their 36 second quarter points in the stretch that granted Portland the separation that would prove to be the difference.
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But when Kerr has to extend those minutes in pressure situations, as Kerr did with Clark in Game 3… and when Portland coach Terry Stotts expressly sets up his rotation to get Lillard or C.J. McCollum out there vs. Clark…
