It was never close in Portland Monday night, as the Warriors jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never even considered defeat as they routed the Trail Blazers for the sweep 128-103.
After one quarter of play, the Warriors had recorded a franchise record 45 points, 11 assists on 15 field goals, and eight 3-pointers. Their starters posted the following numbers in the ever-popular +/- statistic: Curry: 26, Thompson: 24, Pachulia: 24, Green: 22, Durant: 24.
Bottom line: the 45-22 advantage held by the Warriors didn’t even do justice to how far a part these two teams felt from the opening whistle on.
A few of the nastier highlights from the Warriors' 45-point first quarter in Portland, a franchise record in the NBA Playoffs pic.twitter.com/Y0B1UCxixT
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 25, 2017
The second quarter didn’t prove to be too much kinder to the reeling Trail Blazers, illustrated nicely by Curry’s silly, step-back three to end the half, which give the Warriors a 72-48 lead. Once again, it was the defense of the Warriors that played second fiddle to the explosion that was their offense. They managed to hold the high-powered offense of the Trail Blazers to 38% from the field and an even more putrid 27% from behind the arc. The Warriors also picked the Blazers’ pockets to the tune of five steals, forcing eight total turnovers, impressive considering the Trail Blazers only turned the ball over 13 times a game in the regular season.
No doubt the absence of the continuously-mentioned Jusuf Nurkic. After all, they did go 14-5 with him this regular season and 27-36 without the young big. The Warriors came in to the game with the series’ edge in rebounding (47 compared to the Trail Blazers’ 45.7) and the addition of the Warriors’ leading rebounder, Kevin Durant combined with Nurkic’s removal from the starting lineup (even though he only managed to stay in the game 17 minutes) surely didn’t help as the Dubs finished Game 4 with the rebounding edge, 45-39.
If you wanted to nit-pick what was an otherwise beautiful display of the game of basketball, the player currently known by some as “Playoff JaVale,” JaVale McGee failed to register in the positives in the +/- category at -3. However, it would still be hard to criticize the backup big man who swats away three shots and grabs three boards. Not to mention his signature cock ’em back slam it down alley-oops from Draymond Green in the first quarter.