ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Three-and-a-half days after ending their regular season, the Golden State Warriors (67-15) played host to the Portland Trail Blazers (41-41) in Game 1 of the opening round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
The Warriors were without Matt Barnes (right ankle/foot sprain) and Kevon Looney (left hip train).
Q1: Warriors Weather McCollum Storm
Zaza Pachulia got the first bucket of the game…
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[protected-iframe id=”6b1677e02726d6169dedee3fccb1423f-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F853695182264336384″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]But C.J. McCollum got hot, drew free throws, got an extra pass for a triple from Evan Turner, who got the start in place of injured center Jusuf Nurkic, then pulled up for three over Curry and got a runner to drop.
The Warriors countered with a swooping, stepping, coast-to-coast dunk past Damian Lillard from Kevin Durant after a missed scoop by Turner and an outlet by Draymond Green:
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Later, JaVale McGee came in after Andre Iguodala subbed out Pachulia, and promptly got a tip-in of a missed three by Steph, couldn’t catch a lead pass from Curry after that, but disrupted an Al-Farouq Aminu drive, which led to a Durant dunk attempt that got fouled, down the right side.
Curry had hit a long two prior to that…
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[protected-iframe id=”d10da10c19bc12cb672d591a439ebe1c-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F853700495826796544″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]JaVale again converged and got help from Green and Shaun Livingston to disrupt an Allen Crabbe drive, and later grabbed a rebound on a missed runner by Lillard, which led to Curry driving and scoring past a switched Meyers Leonard in transition with 1:00 to play.
But Lillard came back off the ball and got the whistle for too much contact on Curry, sending Steph to the bench as Ian Clark came in. A trip to the free throw line by Lillard put the Blazers behind just 29-25.
Livingston, who had swished his first right-baseline attempt earlier, posted up in the right post and dished back out to Green for three, but Lillard once again drew free throws, this time driving in for a dunk past Draymond, with JaVale helping out at the last moment for the swat.
However, McGee was called for too much body contact despite the clean swat…
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Q2: McCollum Stays Hot, Lillard Joins In
Out of end-of-quarter timeout, the officials reversed their reversal on the Steph long two-pointer, correctly scoring the game at 31-27.
McCollum stayed hot with another jumper, but Draymond countered with another triple, then out of a timeout, Klay Thompson got a backdoor layup assisted by David West, then swatted McCollum off his body, but the referee gave the ball to the Blazers despite the obvious call:
[protected-iframe id=”19ae598ed995a79e966d221ffc5df3c8-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F853705039113732096″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]McCollum hit a catch-and-shoot three from the baseline inbound, Klay answered with a three of his own, but CJ wasn’t done and hit another jumper.
Clark made his imprint on the game, hitting a trey on the catch from the left arc, then leaping high to tap a bad pass to halfcourt, and scored with his left hand on the race down court, contested:
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Out of the timeout, McCollum went to work again, scoring three more buckets in succession and giving Portland an improbable 45-44 lead.
After Durant missed a runner, Lillard took charge and scored a righty scoop down the left side, but Iguodala got doubled down low and found “KD” on the left wing for three.
Klay added a catch-and-turn banker off a cut inside, but Lillard struck back, crossing over Steph impressively at the top and lofting a floater before Draymond could get there in time.
Durant then up-faked and lost a dribble to Moe Harkless, who finished at the other end with a layup past Green, and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 2:38 left, the game now tied at 51-51.
Out of the timeout, Steph drew free throws on Lillard as Damian fouled him on a cut, but Lillard answered with a pull-up, Curry answered that with a right-side bank, then after McCollum threw the ball away and Klay missed an early triple, Lillard erupted again with a three from the Oracle logo which is just beyond the hashmark.
Draymond drew a foul on Harkless, made only one of two free throws, took a foul against Lillard with 5.4 seconds remaining, then stopped him in his tracks on the inbound, and the game went into halftime tied, 56-56.
McCollum tallied 27 points and Lillard 21, shooting a combined 17-for-26 and 5-for-8 from downtown. Durant led the Warriors with 16 points on 5-for-10 field and Curry added 13.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @browneyedgurl)
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