QUARTER POUND
Golden State caps sweep of Portland with 45-22 1st period
PORTLAND, Ore. — JaVale McGee, straight-faced, locked eyes with Draymond Green underneath the Warriors’ basket. As teammates giggled nearby, the two stomped toward each other, dapped and chestbumped.
It was the type of celebration seen on schoolyards, when the oversized bully pummels his victim into submission. In that moment late in the first quarter Monday night, after McGee soared over Portland’s Noah Vonleh to hammer home a lob from Green, Golden State already had tormented the overmatched Trail Blazers plenty.
In the wake of a 14-0 run to start the game en route to an early 28-point lead, the Warriors cruised to a 128-103 rout as they swept Portland in the first round. It was a fitting cap to a dominant series. Even as acting head coach Mike Brown subs for
the ailing Steve Kerr, Golden State continues to reinforce why it is the odds-on choice to win the NBA title, what would be its second in three years.
“Our guys were locked in on both ends of the floor,” Brown said. “Give our guys a lot of credit for the focus they brought. That was at a high level.”
Though most teams would be content to ride Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Green, the Warriors instead showcased their depth. All five Golden State starters scored in double figures for the first time this postseason. Though Curry (game-high 37 points) recaptured his unanimous-MVP play after two off-shooting nights, complementary pieces like Zaza Pachulia (11 points) and David West (12 points) also helped eradicate any doubt Monday.
It wasn’t until almost four minutes into the game, when an Evan Turner three-pointer halted the Warriors’ 14-0 blitz, that the Blazers got on the scoreboard. That first quarter was the stuff of video games: spectacular dunks, uncontested jumpers, rundown blocks. By the time McGee took a feed from Green for an eye-popping slam with 2:15 left in the period, Golden State was up 41-13.
The Warriors shot 15-for-24 from the field, including 8-for-11 from beyond the arc, in the first quarter as Portland went 8for-27. Golden State matched an NBA record for points in a playoff first quarter (45) and tied a franchise playoff mark for threepointers in a quarter (eight).
“It’s kind of indescribable, really,” Toronto head coach Terry Stotts said of the first quarter. “They showed their championship pedigree. We were slow to react to it, and we just couldn’t get it going.”
Though the Blazers began to show signs of life, cutting the lead to 18 in the second quarter, they had no answer for the Warriors’ deluge of scoring options. Late in the second quarter, after nailing a three-pointer and then hitting the floor, Curry shimmied as he sat. In a game already rid of suspense, the two-time reigning NBA MVP was reveling in a night when his team could do little wrong.
It hardly mattered that Durant, back in the starting lineup after missing Games 2 and 3 with a strained left calf, attempted only seven shots and finished with 10 points. He watched the latter stages on the bench alongside Curry, Green (21 points) and Klay Thompson (18).
Midway through the fourth quarter, with the Blazers down 31 points, Damian Lillard trudged toward the sideline after playing his last minutes of the season. A Moda Center crowd of 19,902 roared as the big screen showed Lillard shaking his head in disgust on the bench. The Oakland native’s 34-point, six-assist outing was for naught on a night the rest of Portland’s starters scored only 15 points. Teammate CJ McCollum, who topped the 30-point mark in two of the series’ previous three games, shot 2-for-12 from the field.
“They’re a championship team,” Lillard said. “Watching them and playing against them, it’s obvious. They’re very consistent.”
A day after announcing he would take an indefinite hiatus from in-game coaching, Kerr watched the shellacking from the visiting locker room. A reduced role has been difficult for a man who is so competitive that he has shattered multiple clipboards this season.
Sights like McGee’s alley-oop over Vonleh only underscored that his team is in good hands.
“It was a phenomenal play,” Brown said. “I thought there was no chance for that to happen.”