Warriors rally from 17 down to beat Blazers

OAKLAND — One Warriors star has brought unmatched joy to empower his teammates. The other Warriors star has brought unintended humor to amuse his teammates. For now and always, though, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have remained linked for one important reason: They represent the NBA’s best starting backcourt because they can both shoot from almost any distance.

So in another game in which the Warriors tried to adjust without Kevin Durant, Curry and Thompson offered something familiar both before and during their current NBA championship run.

In the Warriors’ 114-111 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, Curry and Thompson made plenty of shots. Curry finished with 37 points while going 11 of 22 from the field, 4 of 14 from 3 and 11 of 11 from the free-throw line, a performance that cemented his third consecutive 30-point game. Thompson had 24 points while going 8 of 22 from the field and 4 of 8 from deep.

With Durant, Curry and Thompson still symbolized the Warriors offense that featured a steady dose of ball movement and 3s. Without Durant, Curry and Thompson simply exerted their workload.

“Klay and Steph take on a bigger responsibility scoring-wise and they look to go into games more aggressively when Kevin is out. They know they have to. We’re pretty dependent on their scoring when Kevin is not here.”

Yet, Curry and Thompson fulfilled that role in various ways to give the Warriors a 2-0 series lead entering Game 3 on Friday in Portland.

Curry gave the Warriors a 110-108 lead after making three foul shots with 2:01 remaining. Then Curry set up Draymond Green for an open layup that gave the Warriors a 114-111 cushion with 12.3 seconds remaining. And well before that, Curry kept the Warriors afloat even when they trailed by as many as 17 points.

One of the reasons the Warriors trailed 65-50 at halftime? Thompson had nine points while going only 3 of 11 from the field and 1 of 4 from 3. In the third quarter, Thompson became Klay again. He had 13 third-quarter points while going 4 of 6 overall and 3 of 3 from deep.

The Warriors also relied on Dray

mond Green (16 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists), Kevon Looney (14 points, seven rebounds) and Jordan Bell (11 points). Andre Iguodala blocked Damian Lillard’s 3point attempt with 4.2 seconds left.

But plenty of the work centered back to the Splash Brothers. It is a formula the Warriors will lean on for at least another week since Durant has yet to be cleared what the team called “live action” drills.” That is OK. The Warriors have leaned on their starting backcourt for quite some time now. The results have mostly been the same.

Lillard led the Blazers with 23 points. C.J. McCollum added 22 points for Portland, while Seth Curry contributed 16 points off the bench.