So about that Golden State depth… yeah, yeah, we’re waiting. I don’t think that will happen by tomorrow at 5:30 Portland time.
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Not about the raw data, of course.
Damian Lillard scored a playoff career-best 40 points and the Portland Trail Blazers avoided a fourth-quarter letdown to beat Golden State, 120-108, Saturday night at Portland, Ore., cutting the Warriors’ advantage in the Western Conference semifinal to 2-1. That dip in defensive energy was partly a function of a Blazers adjustment to get Green involved as a defender near the top of the key to minimize his roaming, but it was also the case that the Warriors just didn’t look fully engaged.
In the first two games of the series, the Warriors were playing sans Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, who is out due to a sprained right knee.
If it were only that simple, of course. They were determined to continue exploiting that trend vs. the Curry-less Warriors. On the whole though there is no one in the league, let alone the Warriors that has the ability to replace someone with the shooting ability of Curry and for that reason it has been a different style of play – a more conservative one from Golden State in their two wins so far. We’ve got to realize that.
What they did was desperation – controlled, coordinated, aggressive desperation. Portland seemed content to give up many of these shots – Green is more facilitator than gunner – but he made them in a shooting display that felt more like a demonstration of his will than of perimeter talent.
The second-highest thing is Draymond Green’s 37 points (on 23 shots), nine rebounds, eight assists and eight treys, though he dismissed those numbers as “cute” and took the blame for the loss by describing his defense, especially on Al-Farouq Aminu (23 in nine shots/10 rebounds) as “awful”, and then because that didn’t seem to meet his standard for overstatement, “horrendous”. The only bright spot of the quarter was Draymond Green, turning in arguably the best statistical quarter of his career – 19 points, 5-6 on threes, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal.
It was the Trail Blazers who got more contributions from up and down their roster. “I put it on me because that’s what I do, ” Green went on.
Golden State jumped to a 16-9 lead as the Blazers started 4 for 16 from the field.
“I was really happy with the way we played”, said Lillard.
Lillard finished a memorable night with 40 points, 10 assists and five rebounds.
“We were just locked in on both sides of the ball”. Goran Dragic scored 12 points, and Joe Johnson had 10.
“Now, they’re feeling like they can do it”, Green said. Certainly not entirely. Thompson’s impatience was Thompson’s fault. Coach Steve Kerr said he expected him to go 3-on-3 today, but would not speculate on his availability for Game 4.
Kerr quipped that while Curry hasn’t explicitly asked him to play, he suspected such a request was only a matter of time. “I know we need to be better in that department and that falls on my shoulders”. However, Moe Harkless left the game with an apparent right leg injury, replaced by Gerald Henderson.
After getting in a decent pre-game workout on Saturday, Curry might be back for Game 4 here on Monday; it’s probably 50-50 at this point.
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But the Blazers had their own superstar who was on Saturday night.
