The Golden State Warriors will look to rebound in Game Four at the Moda Center on Monday night following their 120-108 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers built a lead to as much as 15 points in the second half, which Golden State cut to 7 in the middle of the third quarter.
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The Portland Trail Blazers dismissed any notion Saturday night that they were simply content to reach the second round of the National Basketball Association playoffs, only to be chewed up and spit out by the Golden State Warriors.
The Grizzlies fired Dave Joerger on Saturday in a surprising move after three seasons and three straight playoff appearances.
Portland head coach Terry Stotts said of Aminu: “He had 23 points on 9 shots, he shot it with confidence”. The Warriors easily dismantled the Rockets without him, but as they now hold a slim 2-1 lead over the surging Blazers, they know this series will not be as easy as they anticipated. The series is closer than it looks, with the Blazers close in the opening losses, and in Game 3 Damian Lillard had a playoff-best 40 points. It wasn’t enough against a Portland team that scored the most points against Golden State this postseason. “His conditioning seemed to be an issue, but hopefully he can get more and more work and we’ll see how he comes up tomorrow in terms of a good night’s sleep coming off a workout”.
“He’s doing fine. He’s not going to play tonight”, Kerr said, adding with a smile: “I’ll pause for tweets”.
“Now they’re feeling like they can do it”, Green said about the Blazers.
Earlier, Toronto took a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semi-final series against Miami with a 95-91 victory in game three. A win on Monday night would put enormous pressure on the Warriors to bring Curry back for game 5, even if he is not quite 100% healthy.
Curry will go through the team’s shootaround Monday morning, after which his status will be reevaluated. “That goes for more than just scoring the ball, that means how focused I am, how accountable I’m holding myself”.
“We played a lot smarter down the stretch than we did the last game, and we challenged them”, Lillard said. “Our team, I think we match up well with these guys”.
“We’ll figure that out when we get there”, Kerr said. It won only three fewer games this season and shocked the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round.
Bogut had six points, eight rebounds, including four offensive rebounds, and two blocked shots for the game.
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“I’ve never lost faith in him”, Toronto coach Dwane Casey said.
