Dubs crush Blazers early, finish sweep
Thompson: Warriors set record with first quarter onslaught.
PORTLAND, Ore. — To get this lopsided first-round series done as quickly as possible, the Warriors got Monday night’s clinching Game 4 done as quickly as possible — as in, Portland looked like toast midway through the first quarter.
The Warriors scored the night’s first 14 points, led 285 six minutes into it, planted 45 first-quarter points on the overmatched, ready-to-vacation Blazers and ran away with a dominating 128-103 win to complete an easy four-game sweep.
“Indescribable,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.
“Unbelievable,” said Mike Brown, handling the headcoaching duties for ailing Steve Kerr for the second straight game.
Now they sit and wait. In Round 2, the Warriors get the winner of the Jazz-Clippers series, which is deadlocked 2-2. If that series ends in six games, the Warriors return to action on Sunday in Oracle. If that series extends to seven, Game 1 of
Round 2 will be next Tuesday.
But let’s return to Monday night’s first-round clincher in Portland, at least briefly, before it becomes an afterthought in this megateam’s quest for something far bigger.
The news pregame was of the return of Kevin Durant, who was held out of the two previous games with a minor calf strain because the Warriors could prioritize rest without much fear of repercussions in the loss column.
Without Durant — but still with three other All-Stars and a capable supporting cast — the Warriors looked great and won both games. With Durant on Monday, they looked even greater.
Durant hit the game’s first shot, a confident pullup 3 from the right wing just feet from his mother, Wanda, seated courtside. Durant uncoiled that 7-foot frame and released it from an unblockable height. When it splashed through, Wanda turned around, drink in hand, and clinked her glass with Rich Kleiman, Durant’s business partner, sitting a row behind her.
The moment and ensuing minutes were the latest reminder of the league’s worst nightmare, concocted this past July Fourth weekend in the Hamptons. Durant followed up the 3 with a cutting transition dunk, set up smoothly by Stephen Curry. Then he erased a Maurice Harkless fastbreak dunk attempt with a burst of acceleration, a leap and an impressive LeBron-like chasedown block.
A few minutes later, when his crossover and soaring dunk put the Warriors up 22-3, worries that Durant’s twinged calf muscle would slow him were out the window. From there, he floated to the background and didn’t do much else, finishing with 10 points and only seven shots in 20 easy minutes — almost like he came out and used the Blazers as a scout team test run for his calf, proved to himself it was fine and then let the other stars stick Portland with the final daggers.
“That was the plan,” Durant said.
Curry was first in line. The Warriors’ star point guard played his most dominant game of the series. Curry nailed three of the team’s eight first-quarter 3s, closed the first half with a fadeaway 26-footer as he fell to the floor and shimmied as Golden State’s lead ballooned to 72-48.
Curry then closed his night with another deep third-quarter barrage, highlighted by a straightaway 3 in which he turned, nonchalantly, right as he released it, high-fiving Draymond Green and not even looking as the ball splashed through.
“That was the shot that felt the best in a long, long time,” Curry said. “But I’ve actually missed some where I’ve done that before, so I’m not flawless with it.”
In all, Curry made seven of his 11 shots from beyond the arc and finished with 37 points on 12-of-20 shooting — plus eight assists and seven rebounds — in 29 minutes. He didn’t even play a second of the fourth quarter.
But it wasn’t just the megastars. It was everyone. As was the case this entire series, the Warriors didn’t get a poor performance from anywhere in their rotation. Even the maligned Zaza Pachulia scored a series-high 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including an and-1 in that runaway first quarter in which he celebrated with a snow angel on the court after tumbling. All five Warriors starters scored in double-figures, while three Blazers starters (C.J. McCollum, Meyers Leonard and Harkless) combined for eight points total.
Green blocked three more Blazers shots in Game 4, giving him a playoff-high 17 blocks in four games.