The Golden State Warrior recorded a come-from-behind victory over Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center, Rose Quarter, Portland, to move within a win into their 5th-straight NBA final. The Warriors had trailed the Blazers 66-53 at half time, but there is a reason they are called 'Warriors' like they did all season and postseason, the Warriors staged a trademark 2nd-half fight-back, to win the Game 3 with 11 points margin.
The Warriors, still without star men DeMarcus Cousins and Kevin Durant who has been magnificent for the Warriors in the playoffs before he got injured in Gane 5 versus Houston Rockets, Durant has been averaging 34.2 points per game in the postseason and is unlikely to be available in the remaining games against Blazers. However, Warriors sure have enough arsenal in their ranks to cover for DeMarcus and Durant, the trio of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green did come big. Led by Green's triple-double, the trio put up a decent performance as shown below;
Draymond Green particularly put up a good show on the night, racking up triple-double as earlier noted, he led Warriors charges for the comeback win. His all-around contribution on the night was hailed by his coach, Steve Kerr;
I don't even know what to say about Draymond, ...He was like a wrecking ball out there. He was destroying everything in his path...
He wasn't only squashing Blazers' attempt of a rally, he was spreading and finding his teammates with passes, and his teammate, Steph Curry acknowledged it;
it's like he's got 8 eyeballs, Steph said.
Warriors defended well in packs against Blazers' main threats, CJ McCollum and Darmain Lillard, they contained them in the 2nd half, as Blazers players were worn out, I mean, Lillard confessed that it was like going up against a wall of defence, sometimes it's 3 defenders...
Blazers have a Curry in their ranks too, the younger brother of Steph Curry, Seth, plies his trade with the Trail Blazers. Though Seth Curry had a 30-minutes cameo in the game, he could only manage 5 points and 3 rebounds, a foul cry of his brother's numbers at the other end of the court.
Trail Blazers would have themselves to blame, having led going into the half time break, but a below-par performance in the 2nd half had them relinquish a 13-point lead(just like in Game 2 where they let go of a 15-point lead to lose 111-114). They were particularly poor with their free throws, they could only make 20 out of a total of 33 attempts. Starman CJ McCollum guilty of wasteful free throws, particularly missing 4 out of 5 vital free throws in the last quarter. It's the 2nd successive games that the Blazers would fade away as the game wounds down, and some have attributed it to a gruelling 7-game playoff tie against the Denver Nuggets in the 2nd-round series, and Lillard duly admitted that the series is definitely tiring.
It is now a mountain to climb for the Blazers going into the all-important Game 4 at Portland, a loss would wrap up the series 4 nil to the Warriors. No team has ever come back from a 3 nil down to win in the playoffs, it will be some story if the Blazers pulled it off, a miraculous comeback so to say.
Thank you all for your time.
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