Warriors put Blazers on elimination brink

STEPHEN Curry scored 14 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Golden State Warriors stormed back from a 16-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 119-113.

Klay Thompson tallied 24 points on Saturday for the Warriors, who seized a commanding 3-0 lead in the bestof-seven first-round Western Conference playoff series.

CJ McCollum scored 32 points and Damian Lillard added 31 for the Blazers, who will try to stay alive with a win in Game 4 today.

Golden State was wit hout for ward Kev in Durant (ca lf injur y), guard Shaun Liv ingston (f i nger) a nd for wa rd Matt Barnes (ankle).

Warriors coach Steve Kerr also did not attend the game because of illness. He was replaced by assistant coach Mike Brown.

After the final buzzer, Curry (pictured, AFP) collected the game ball and said he planned to deliver it to Kerr.

“Our coach is going through a lot right now,” Curry said. “He told us to go out and ‘Win one for the Gipper’.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Marc Gasol lifted Memphis to a 110108 overtime win over the San Antonio Spurs with a clutch jump shot at the buzzer that allowed the Grizzlies to level their playoff series 2-2.

I n Me m p h i s , Ga s o l ’s f l o a t e r over Spurs defende r L a M a r c u s Aldridge dge with 0.7 seconds nds left capped a thrillingilling back and forth first-round playoff contest ntest on Saturday in front ont of a crowd of 18,100. 0.

Elsewhere, ewhere, DeMar DeRozan, held scoreless from the floor a game earlier, struck for 33 3 points and nine rebounds unds to lead Toronto over Milwaukee 87-76.

The e visiting Raptors pulled d level with Milwaukee aukee at 2-2 in the e best-of- seven Eastern C Conference series, which continuescont today in Toronto.

‘He’s a crybaby’

In Atlanta, the At Atlanta Hawks led wire wire-to-wire en route to a domin a t i n g 1 1 6 - 9 8 v i c t o r y o v e r Washi Washington, cutting the Wizards lead in the playoff s series to 2-1. For ward Paul Millsap registered his seco second consecutive dou double-double by finish finishing with 29 p o i n t s a n d 1 4 re b o u n d s a s t h e Hawks clawed their way back into the Eastern Conference series.

Millsap was 12 of 20 from the floor and had five assists. The only blemish on his night was missing four-of-nine f ree throws.

Game 4 of the series is today in Atlanta.

After the game, Millsap and Washington’s Markieff Morris continued to fire verbal jabs at each other, with Morris calling Millsap a “crybaby”.

“He’s a crybaby. You get all the calls when you’re a crybaby. That’s how I look at it,” Morris said.

Millsap added: “It definitely got personal now, yes.”