Stephen Curry is making steady progress on rehab for his sprained knee, but a loss in Game 3 for the Golden State Warriors could speed up the process for the NBA MVP return to the lineup. Lillard posted his third 40-point game at home against the Warriors, and his Blazers became the first team to beat Golden State twice this season.
Advertisement
Lillard had 40 points and 10 assists, becoming the first Trail Blazers player to do so in a playoff game since Clyde Drexler did it in 1992. Al-Farouq Aminu finished with 23 points and 10 boards, while C.J. McCollum added 22 points.
“I think we played a lot smarter down the stretch than we did the last game, and we challenged them”, Lillard said.
Curry had a two-on-two scrimmage in practice on Saturday and Kerr wants him to get through a five-on-five scrimmage before letting him play against the Trail Blazers.
Dwyane Wade managed a game-high 38 points for the Heat, who lost Hassan Whiteside in the first quarter with a knee injury. Lillard scored 25 points and Aminu contributed 11 points in the second quarter and the Blazers took a 58-46 lead into halftime.
This time, the Warriors couldn’t make a credible comeback attempt and saw their lead in the series cut to 2-1 as the Trail Blazers won in a 120-108 shootout Saturday.
“You run out of superlatives with Damian”, Portland coach Terry Stotts said.
Green had 37 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and Thompson scored 35 points for the Warriors, who sank 14 three-pointers but had their worst defensive effort of the playoffs.
Portland broke two franchise play-off records for three-pointers in a single game.
Whether that means Curry might be ready to play in game four, Kerr didn’t know.
Game 4 is Monday night in Portland. “They’re gonna try to take away what you do best, and you’re gonna have to find different ways [to score] in order to be effective”.
Moving Maurice Harkless on to Thompson in Game 2 was Portland’s biggest adjustment, but it was evident to the Blazers coaching staff that something wasn’t right with Harkless.
Green felt it was just a matter of not letting a large number of Trail Blazers have good games. But hopefully he can get more and more work and we’ll see how he comes up [Monday] in terms of a night of sleep coming off the workout.
Advertisement
As impressive as those numbers are, Curry undoubtedly will say upon receiving the award that repeating as National Basketball Association champion is more important, and the Warriors have been chugging along in his absence. It’s probably a little human nature, having an early lead and then being up 2-0 (in the series).
