The Golden State Warriors went down to a heavy loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in their playoff series on Saturday night but it looks increasingly unlikely that their NBA MVP Steph Curry will be returning to the team for Game 4.
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Green (37 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Thompson (35 points) combined for 72 points, but Green couldn’t have been more disappointed in himself while also guaranteeing a win in Game 4. “I didn’t lead my troops tonight”. “We can be better and we will”.
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. Thompson scored 18 points as the Warriors carried a 28-22 advantage after the first quarter. “It’s not going to be easy”. Draymond Green, in particular, has stepped up his overall game, while Klay Thompson has gotten hot scoring the ball.
He made 4 of his 5 three-pointers en route to 23 points, and added a game-best 10 rebounds in 41:04 minutes. “If we cover those guys, Dame’s 40 doesn’t beat us”.
Said Lillard: “You don’t want to be down 0-3, especially not to this team. I wanted to come out aggressive and leave it all out here, and that’s what I did tonight”. “Our guys followed suit and got it done”.
There could be a bit more pressure to get Stephen Curry back into the lineup now that the Blazers have cut into the series lead. On Saturday night, he finished with 40 points and dished out 10 assists. “Shots are going to go in or they’re not, but sometimes when there is a rhythm to the game and the ball is moving, shots are more likely to go in”. They shot 46.5 per cent from the field but fired at a 56.7 per cent clip (17 for 30) from downtown.
The Trail Blazers became the first team this season to defeat the Warriors twice.
This season, Portland have won just two of their seven encounters with the Warriors – including this series.
In game three, they started the final quarter up by 11.
Curry has not played in two full weeks since he sprained his medial collateral ligament (MCL) on April 24 during Golden State’s first round series against the Houston Rockets. A Lillard 3-pointer pushed them ahead 42-36, and they extended the margin to 12 points at the break. He then added 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a jumper over Dwyane Wade with 31 seconds left to give Toronto a three-point lead.
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“We played a lot smarter down the stretch than we did the last game, and we challenged them”, Lillard said. “And every last one of them told me to keep playing – stop fighting myself and continue to grind it out”.
