Damian Lillard’s three pointer to beat the third-quarter buzzer put Portland 11 points ahead. Without Stephen Curry to lean on, the Warriors won’t have the luxury of coasting and flipping a switch. “It’s human nature. The other team comes out angry, maybe you let your guard down a little bit, even though you’re aware of the circumstances”. So that’s why he started out Game 4. Klay Thompson was a dismal 5-17 shooting, and Mo Harkless was clearly in his head – even forcing Thompson into committing a technical foul. However, by the time CJ McCollum converted the Trail Blazers’ next field goal, a short shot with eight seconds to go, Golden State had run off to a 13-point lead.
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“We have a huge break between 2 and 3”. One ESPN analyst contends that the Golden State Warriors star forward has at least matched the Cleveland Cavaliers ability to do many things on the floor and be considered among the most versatile players in the league. Green had 17 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists.
Festus Ezeli not only saved the game for Golden State he may have saved his spot in the rotation. Coach Kerr needed a legitimate big who was capable of moving laterally with quickness and agility. “He wanted to play but he hadn’t practiced”, Kerr said.
Coming off a gentleman’s sweep of the Houston Rockets in a first round series where Curry played a grand total of 39 minutes, the Dubs faced a tougher opponent in the Western Conference semifinals.
Q. Could you talk about the difference between Game 1 and Game 2?
The backup center responded to the challenge, and came up aces for Golden State.
Curry averaged 34.2 minutes per game in the 79 games he played in the regular season. Mason Plumlee is grabbing 12.8 rebounds and Al-Farouq Aminu is dishing two assists. Most importantly, he was an effective and imposing presence on defense as Portland managed just 12 points in the final period.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Curry is still progressing along nicely in his rehab and is increasing his work in the weight room, but likely won’t be ready in time for Game 3. “… It was a phenomenal effort by Fezzy to change the game”. “We’d been down and out before, said Thompson. We didn’t execute the way we had been the entire game, we didn’t move the ball the way we had the entire game, we didn’t defend the way that we did for the first three and a half quarters and they made us pay for it”. We thought the game was just going to kind of coast and we were just going to win the game. Our defense was so great there at the end.
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But in the first quarter of Game 1 and the fourth quarter of Game 2, Golden State worked the Portland like the jayvee, 71-29.
