Green shows range to power Warriors

Draymond Green showed Jazz coach Quin Snyder his hot hand and range up close, knocking down five 3-pointers and scoring 21 points before a brief knee scare late in the Warriors’ 115-104 victory over Utah on Thursday night in Oakland, Calif., for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kevin Durant added 25 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Stephen Curry had 23 points and seven assists — and played smothering defense — as Golden State stayed unbeaten through six playoff games.

Gordon Hayward overcame a poor Game 1 and slow start in this one to score 33 points, and Rudy Gobert had 16 points and 16 rebounds before fouling out for a Jazz team missing injured point guard George Hill. He was ruled out earlier in the day because of a sore left big toe.

Green hear chants of “Dray-mond!” when he headed for the locker room with 7:24 to play, then cheers when he returned at the 5:16 mark. He came up awkwardly after hitting the floor on a drive, then grabbed at his left knee — which the team said he “tweaked.”

Five months after he questioned Green’s perimeter range and commented about allowing the emotional star to shoot from way out, Snyder said before the game he had learned his lesson about fueling the AllStar forward.

Green has been fueling himself just fine, and his teammates, too. All his 3s were in the first half as the Warriors led wire to wire again. Golden State’s six straight wins to begin a postseason are a franchise record.

Green also had seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and another block to bring his six-game playoff total to 20.

Wizards 116, Celtics 89

In Washington, John Wall scored 24 points, Isaiah Thomas was held to 13 and the Wizards jumped out to a hot start and rode it to victory over the Celtics in a technical foul-filled Game 3 to cut their series deficit to 2-1.

The Wizards used a 22-0 first-quarter run to take a 34-12 lead as Thomas and the Celtics kept missing shots and turning the ball over. The game was already a blowout in the second when Washington’s Kelly Oubre Jr. was ejected for charging and knocking over Kelly Olynyk after the Boston big man was called for an illegal screen.

There were eight technicals and three ejections.

Otto Porter and Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 points apiece for the Wizards, who improved to 4-0 at home in the playoffs. Washington’s 119 first-quarter points is an NBA record for the first three games of a series.