The Golden State Warriors have been boosted by the return of star point guard Stephen Curry, who is listed as active for Monday’s NBA Western Conference semi-final play-off against the Portland Trail Blazers.
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Curry missed his first ten three-point attempts, but went 5-6 to finish and his efforts saw the Warriors take a 3-1 series lead, ahead of game five in Oakland on Thursday.
Let me repeat: Curry scored 17 points in one overtime, more than anyone else ever has in the history of the National Basketball Association, regular season or postseason. Former Washington State standout Klay Thompson finished with 23 points for Golden State.
In the video above, Lillard shares his frustration about losing Game 4 in overtime. The Warriors’ perimeter pressure, which limited Portland’s long-range shooting to 32.3 percent in Game 1, is what Golden State hopes to replicate Monday. He suffered that after turning his ankle in the opening game of the playoffs against Houston.
Last December while in Dallas for the College Football Playoff, I spent triple figures on a lower level ticket to see the Warriors play the Mavericks.
That includes Monday night’s game in which Dwyane Wade scored 30 points as the Heat earned a 94-87 win at AmericanAirlines Arena, tying the series at two games apiece.
And now they go home with a chance to close out this series. By May those expectations lay crushed beneath Curry’s sneakers, blown up by three-point bombs and steam rolled by Warriors’ wins. The Blazers jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the first quarter and held on to it to go into the half with a 67-57 lead.
Curry came in off the bench with 5:56 left in the first quarter and Portland up 16-2.
As luck would have it, the game lasted more than four quarters, Curry was adjudicated as having paid enough penance to the almighty rust god, and the crowd of 18,000-plus at the Moda Center and millions more watching on TV bore witness to a singular course correction, akin to Dr. Manhattan discovering the extent of his powers.
That brings us to the second, and perhaps even more arresting occurrence of overtime: watching the spirit of Blazers owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen being broken on live television. “[Expletive], 17 points in a five-minute overtime”.
It took a while, but Stephen Curry regained his MVP form just in time to help the Warriors take a big step forward.
But Portland rallied, and in the middle of it, Livingston complained about a non-call when he thought he was fouled, and complained and gestured some more, then was ejected by official Scott Foster with 1:36 left in the half.
Too bad I missed it in Dallas that night, but I’ll spend money that could be used to pay three, if not four, bills to watch him play in person – again. Curry missed a running bank shot, and Green’s tip-in failed to drop as time expired, forcing an extra session.
“That’s what you get when two teams are trying to make the conference finals”, said Toronto guard Kyle Lowry, who fouled out late in regulation after scoring 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting and blamed himself for the loss.
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O’Neal added, “You know what’s insane?”
