Curry, the reigning league Most Valuable Player, hasn’t played since spraining a ligament in his right knee in the fourth game of the Warriors’ first-round playoff series win over the Houston Rockets.
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Lillard would respond by finding Al-Farouq Aminu at the top of the key, and three of his 23 points have the Blazers firmly in command, as their lead swells to a dozen. McCollum scored 22 for Portland. They led 58-46 at half-time and stretched the advantage to as many as 20 points late on.
Draymond Green had 37 points, and Klay Thompson added 35 for the Warriors, They had had won four straight against the Blazers.
The Heat host game four on Monday. Curry (knee sprain) played 2-on-2 before Game 3 but was on the bench in street clothes when the game started and had to watch Portland guard Damian Lillard bury deep 3-pointers and spark his team to victory while rallying his teammates and the home fans.
Green said that Portland opened this game with a sense of doubt-that went away when the Warriors flubbed away some first-quarter opportunities.
But the game would turn in the second, with the Trail Blazers going 48 percent from the field and 50 percent from three on the way to outscoring the Warriors 36-18 in the quarter. The Warriors’ 6-foot-9 forward finished with 13-for-23 shooting, including 8-for-12 from beyond the arc.
However, he picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in the first two minutes of the third quarter and was pulled from the game soon after.
The Blazers came back from a 2-0 deficit in the opening round against the Los Angeles Clippers, who were hurt when both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin went down with injuries.
With or without Curry in the game, the Blazers will have their hands full. I thought the first quarter, we couldn’t get much rhythm going to it but we found a way to hang around. Golden State leads the series 2-1. He became the first player in National Basketball Association history to average over 30 points-per-game (30.1) while playing less than 35 minutes-per-game (34.2). “They’re one of my favorite teams to watch in an off night”, Kerr said. “We’ll win”, he said.
DeMar DeRozan scored 19 points and Valanciunas had 16 points and 12 rebounds in just 22 minutes.
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.
On Sunday, Curry returned to the practice court at Moda Center and participated in a game of 3-on-3. Thompson came in averaging 25.9 points in seven playoff games.
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Curry had been hopeful earlier in the week that he would be able to play in Saturday’s game, but ESPN had reported on Friday that he would likely be kept out of Saturday’s game.
