Durant leads Warriors closer to series sweep
Odds stacked against Spurs as no team has ever won a series after losing first 3 games
Kevin Durant scored 19 of his 33 points in the third quarter on Saturday as the Golden State Warriors took a stranglehold lead in the NBA Western Conference finals with a 120-108 blowout of San Antonio.
“I love where my game is at,” Durant said. “I work hard every day, I know what I can do in this league. I just try to put my head down and go.”
The Warriors now lead the Spurs 3-0 in the best-of-seven series with game four set for Monday in San Antonio.
The victory appears to put the Warriors on a collision course to meet the mighty Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA finals.
No NBA team has ever come back to win a series after losing the first three games.
Cavaliers lead Celtics
The Cavaliers are up 2-0 in their NBA semi-final series and have an impressive 247-192 scoring advantage against the Boston Celtics, who lost star player Isaiah Thomas to a season-ending injury on Saturday.
Stephen Curry tallied 21 points for the Warriors, who are now a perfect 11-0 in the post-season to match the best start in NBA playoff history.
(All series best-of-seven) Western Conference
Golden State 120 San Antonio 108 (Golden State leads series 3-0). They have won past 27 games.
Curry said he expects to see a different Spurs team tonight. “Game four is going to be even tougher,” he said. “It is a chance to close it out and they are going to come out swinging.”
The host Spurs trailed by nine points at the half in game three and came within 69-65 two minutes into the third quarter before Golden State seized command with another incredible scoring performance.
It was the Spurs’ chance to claw their way back into the series, but by the middle of the fourth quarter at AT&T Centre arena, they appeared spent.
“They did a great job and competed really well,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Golden State. “Every time you look up, you are playing against four All Stars. We turned it over too much and we have got to make more shots.”
The Spurs’ hopes were severely damaged earlier on Saturday when the team announced that star forward Kawhi Leonard would not play in game three because of a sprained left ankle. 26 of their