MODA CENTER, PORTLAND, OR — Two nights after taking a 2-0 lead against the Portland Trail Blazers (0-2), the Golden State Warriors (2-0) were up in the Pacific Northwest for Game 3 of the opening round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
The Warriors ruled out Kevin Durant for apparently extra rest, as he participated in pregame routines and did not show any signs of his left calf strain injury. Patrick McCaw once again got the start in Durant’s place.
Shaun Livingston (thumb/finger) and Matt Barnes (ankle) also remained out, as did Kevon Looney (hip).
Also, head coach Steve Kerr was out ill, and assistant Mike Brown took the reins.
Meanwhile, the Blazers welcomed back center Jusuf Nurkic to the starting lineup.
Q1: Bad Start
The Warriors got off to a rocky start as Klay Thompson got a steal but then trhew the ball away, then missed two open catch-and-shoot jumpers inside the arc.
Although Draymond Green hit a triple early on, Stephen Curry missed, Jusuf Nurkic found Damian Lillard on a cut, and then powered his way past Zaza Pachulia for an inside bucket, and Evan Turner added a right-baseline turnaround to take an 11-3 lead with 9:11 remaining as Brown took his first timeout.
Out of the timeout, Curry hit a jumper after sliding past a Pachulia screen, but couldn’t catch fire, at least not from outside, missing his next two threes, but driving in for an and-one against C.J. McCollum.
However, Lillard put his stamp on the game, hitting two triples while Curry missed a wide-open cast from distance as all the Blazers surprisingly left him alone, and Green headed to the bench after a couple plays didn’t go his way, a non-call on his layup attempt and a foul on what appeared to be a clean block on Moe Harkless.
But Andre Iguodala checked in and immediately got an and-one on a drive against McCollum…
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Lillard imposed his will twice more, though, with threes, one on a handoff from Noah Vonleh and the other on a dribble-pop-and-fade up top on a switched McGee.
Draymond answered once more with a top-of-the-arc triple on the catch from Iguodala, but Al-Farouq Aminu hit an improbable isolation play on the left elbow against contact from Green, his second personal, plus the bucket.
That was Green’s second personal, Brown mulled bringing Klay in, but sent Thompson back to sit down…
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His free throws drew the Warriors to within 35-30 with just 5 seconds to go, but Lillard struck again, getting a switch to face Draymond with two fouls, and going past Green easily as he didn’t want to pick up another foul.
The Blazers took a 37-30 lead into the second stanza.
Q2: A Flagrant Flagrant Call
Aminu came alive in the start of the second quarter, hitting a right corner trey assisted by McCollum, while David West threw the ball away twice, the second of which led to a McCollum early-offense reverse layup.
Ian Clark couldn’t connect under the hoop with Nurkic lurking, the shot getting caught too far under the hoop, Aminu up-faked a close-out from Draymond, to dunk past a helping Klay who was too late, Green lost the ball in the post and screamed at the ref, which had no effect on the no-call, and Allen Crabbe drilled a triple as Aminu saved a ball from going out of the baseline, with Clark adding to the harm by fouling Crabbe.
Brown called timeout before the bonus free throw, which had the Blazers up, 48-33, with 9:17 left.
Out of the timeout, Thompson hit a step-back over McCollum, which seemed to get him going, later hitting a long two, but then not getting the call on a drive that drew a lot of contact, and falling short on a catch-and-shoot up top.
Clark, however, finally contributed with an and-one floater into the teeth of the Blazers’ defense on a runner, and West pulled down a defensive board, outlet to Steph, who pulled up a few feet after the Portland logo and drilled a three:
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Out of the timeout, Aminu and Curry exchanged tough layups, Lillard hit another three, and West answered with a strong move inside, but then lost a ball to Turner on a strip, and fouled Turner on the exchange.
Turner didn’t like it and threw the ball in West’s direction, the refs stopped play, incredibly reviewed the harmless frustration push by West, then ruled perhaps the weakest Flagrant Foul called in the history of the NBA.
Turner was assessed a technical for unsportsmanlike conduct, Steph hit the free throw, Turner hit both of his, but McCollum hit a trey on the next entry after Turner lolligagged around, and the five-point play resulted in a 61-48 Blazers lead.
Steph then missed a double-crossover step-back inside the arc, McCaw committed a foul in the penalty, Curry smoked a layup after a nice defensive disruption by McCaw, then McCaw grabbed Turner on a jumper the other way.
After a timeout, Turner drilled both free throws to give Portland a 65-48 lead with 2:23 to play.
Closing out the half, Iguodala fed Green versus Lillard in the post, and Draymond lofted a short lob to McGee for the slam:
[protected-iframe id=”eda027b313d635807715c4827520b7fa-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F855993325274284033″ width=”360″ height=”220″ frameborder=”0″]Green drew a charge on Vonleh on the right baseline, Curry executed a series of step-back moves to finally launch one over Vonleh with Draymond providing interference at the left arc, but Lillard hit a tough floater that trickled in at the other end.
Steph got a switch onto Vonleh again, but shanked the step-back inside the arc, running out of time, and the Blazers took a 67-54 lead into the second half.
Lillard led all scorers with 22 points.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram via @untoldroad)
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