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The Golden State Warriors are once again in the finals of the Western Conference and had a great start against the Portland Trail Blazers with a 116-94 victory in the first game at Oracle Arena.
Golden State started the series without Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins, but did not miss a comfortable win against Portland. Star Guard Stephen Curry was absolutely on fire since he finished with 36 points and toppled nine of his 15 attempts from outside the bow.
As if Curry's performance was not spectacular enough, the Warriors also enjoyed a huge boost from Klay Thompson. The sniper guard also added 26 points on 10 shots out of 24.
On the Portland side, the Trail Blazers really struggled to get up from the ground because they only shot 36.1% all night long. Starkeeper Damian Lillard scored 19 points, a top in the team, but missed eight of his 12 attempts. Five different Blazers finished in doubles, but no player was logged on more than two shots from behind.
Here's all you need to know about the final phase of the Western Conference:
No. 1 Golden State Warriors and No. 3 Portland Trail Blazers
How to watch Match 2
- Date: Thursday, May 16th
- Time: 21h ET
- Location: Oracle Arena – Oakland, California
- TV channel: ESPN
- Live Statistics: GameTracker
- Streaming Online: WatchESPN
- chances: To be determined
TV Lists
All Western Conference Finals will be broadcast on ESPN.
Playoff Schedule, Results
* All times is
- Game 1 (on GS): Warriors 116, Trail Blazers 94 (Box Score)
- Game 2 (at GS): Thu May 16, 9pm. – TV: ESPN
- Game 3 (POR): Saturday, May 18 at 21h. – TV: ESPN
- Game 4 (POR): Mon 20 May, 9pm. – TV: ESPN
- Game 5 * (at GS): Wed 22 May, 9pm. – TV: ESPN
- Game 6 * (POR): Friday, May 24 at 21h. – TV: ESPN
- Game 7 * (at GS): Sunday, May 26 at 21h. – TV: ESPN
*If necessary
Ratings and Analysis
Check out the Sportsline NBA Selection Sheet for all your daily odds.
Who wins Warriors vs. Blazers? And on which side are the gains distributed in more than 50% of the simulations? Visit SportsLine to see the first game against the spread, all from an advanced computer model that earns more than $ 3,000 on the best choices of the season.
storylines
Trail Blazers: When Jusuf Nurkic was injured in the leg at the end of the season, late March, the consensus was that the Blazers' season was over. Of course, they would play in the playoffs and possibly win a series in the first round, but no one expected them to embark on a decisive series in the populated West. In fact, when they were paired with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round, almost everyone chose them to lose. And yet, here they are for the first time since the year 2000 in the finals of the Western Conference and prepare to face the powerful Golden State Warriors.
warriors: For the fifth consecutive season, the Warriors have qualified for the Western Conference Finals, and they will be looking to make the same number of consecutive trips to the NBA Finals. But their run to the three rounds was a bit complicated with Kevin Durant's injury in Game 5 of their second-round Rockets series. Now, in the fifth year of their dynasty, they will have to rely as much on the three great originals of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green as in the first year. This may be appropriate, however, with major changes in staffing, including a potential departure for Durant, possibly in the summer.
Matchups to watch
1. Backcourts: This is undoubtedly the most important game of the series. Curry and Thompson have been the league's best backcourt duo for more than five years, but Lillard and McCollum are not far behind. And in fact, the Blazers duo can claim that he was better during the playoffs.
During at least the first part of this series, the Warriors will need great performances of Curry and Thompson. Similarly, the Blazers will need Lillard and McCollum to introduce themselves and match them. If they can not do that, then the Blazers have little luck in this series, and in fact, Portland may need their star backyard to surpass the Splash Brothers.
Whatever the winning team, the backyard will probably win the series.
2. Kevin Durant against his veal: There is something to be said about the idea that the Warriors are better or at least play a more successful style with Kevin Durant off the court. In the last three seasons, the Numbers show that they are better with Steph Curry on the floor as the main man against Durant in the lead.
However, these numbers have a lot of context. The regular season is obviously different from the playoffs, and Durant was still playing in many of those games, which meant he was helping to defeat the other teams. In addition, these numbers do not indicate the type of alignment Curry was playing on, nor how long those pitches were from one party to the other. That's not to say that he can not succeed – this is not the case – but just to point out that there is no guarantee that you can extrapolate these scorecards and apply them to this series.
The Warriors are not a deep team, and Curry and Klay Thompson struggled sometimes during the playoffs. As we saw against the Rockets in Game 6, this group can still win without Durant, but it will be much harder to do it consistently without its extra firepower.
3. 3 point shot: Both of these teams are among the top 3-point teams in the regular season and playoffs. Neither triggers as many attempts, but the percentage is high. Golden State leads all teams in the playoffs at 37.2% of the city center, and the Blazers are not far behind at 35.9%, which is the second highest score of the remaining four teams.
Although the Warriors are the most talented of the two teams, the gap is not so great if Durant is injured. And in a relatively equal match, shooting in 3 points can make the difference. If Lillard and McCollum warm up downtown and start getting help from Seth Curry, the Blazers could make it very interesting. On the other hand, if the Splash brothers light up the dashboard from outside, the chances of victory of the Blazers seem slim.
Prediction series
This should be a pretty interesting series with Durant's injury, but the best Blazers players are Lillard and McCollum, and this is not an advantage against the Warriors, unlike other teams. Portland has a chance to make it interesting, but in the end, the Warriors will be too talented and win in six games.
2019 series support
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