Golden State Warriors, the defending champions have had a great start to their Western Conference final playoffs with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Warriors won Game 1 and was keen to get a 2-0 lead on Thursday night and they did exactly that.
The Warriors were once again without the services of Kevin Durant and showed that they can win without KD.
The Warriors won 114-111 in front of their home crowd and will be keen on winning Game 3 which is set to take place on Saturday night.
The Warriors won Game 1 comfortably 116-94 as they exposed a number of flaws in the Trail Blazers strategy. Credit must be given to Portland who fixed many of those flaws and showed up on Thursday night as a much stronger and confident team. They pushed the Warriors hard and lost by just 3 points.
Stephen Curry was once again the main man for the Warriors and scored 37 points with 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Klay Thompson has shown that he can step up and deliver when the Warriors need him and he provided great support to Curry. Thompson finished the night with 24 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Draymond Green had a great game scoring 16 points with 10 rebounds and 7 assists.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum had a good game for the Trail Blazers but they need to do more if they are going to win Game 3 and make it a competitive series.
The Trail Blazers need to take advantage of the fact that Kevin Durant is going to miss Games 3 and 4 as he has still not recovered fully from the calf injury that he sustained against the Houston Rockets. There is no doubt that the Warriors are a lot harder to beat with KD in the team and it is the best chance for Portland to win the next two games and even the series.
Since the Warriors have won the first 2 games, KD can afford to take the next 2 games off and recover fully. Coach Steve Kerr will be happy to see that the Warriors are winning without KD who many suspect will leave the Warriors at the end of the season and go on to join the New York Knicks.
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