Golden State Warriors host Portland Trail Blazers in opening game of Western Conference Finals
Watch Portland Trail Blazers @ Golden State Warriors Game 1 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Wednesday morning (2am)
Wednesday 15 May 2019 04:41, UK
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors welcome Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers to Oracle Arena in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
Live NBA: Portland @ Golden State
Lillard, who grew up in Oakland, bombed in a game-winning three-pointer on what many believed would be his final shot at Oracle in a one-point, regular season overtime win in December.
But now, perhaps fittingly, he must return in a postseason series that will be the last for the Warriors in Oakland should they fail to advance to their fifth straight NBA finals. Golden State will move into the Chase Center in San Francisco next season.
Lillard and CJ McCollum, hero of Sunday's Game 7 win at Denver that propelled the Trail Blazers into their first Western finals since 2000, will go head to head with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the marquee matchup of the series.
Unless there's a clear winner in the duel of two of the NBA's premier backcourts, the series could turn into a battle of attrition in the frontcourt, where five key players have different degrees of injuries.
The only certainty among the five is that Portland center Jusuf Nurkic, who suffered a broken leg in March, won't play in the series. He contributed double-doubles to two Portland wins over Golden State this season, and added a third in a December loss.
Meanwhile, Nurkic's counterpart, DeMarcus Cousins, has expressed a desire to return from a torn quad at some point in the series for Golden State. If Cousins could return and in what capacity loom as two super-sized question marks.
Then there's Kevin Durant (strained calf), Enes Kanter (separated shoulder) and Rodney Hood (hyperextended knee). Durant already has been ruled out of Game 1, but the Warriors' star will be re-evaluated Thursday, while Portland's Kanter and Hood are expected to continue to play, but probably not at 100 per cent.
Hood is the biggest uncertainty. He had an MRI exam on his left knee on Monday. It was negative, which is exactly what the super sub had been expecting to hear after a postgame exam on Sunday.
"They checked my knee and everything is stable. Major relief," Hood told reporters after the game. "Hopefully the pain goes down. Hopefully it's feeling better by Tuesday. I'm going to try to shoot for Tuesday, if possible."
The teams split four games in the regular season, including a two-game, playoff-type, home-and-home series in December that began with Lillard's heroics in Oakland.
Two nights later, the Warriors went to Portland and extracted a measure of revenge, with Thompson (32), Curry (25) and Durant (25) combining for 82 points in a 115-105 win.
The teams have met twice in the playoffs in the last three seasons, with Golden State prevailing 4-1 in the Western semi-finals in 2016 and 4-0 in the first round in 2017.
Key Battle: Stephen Curry vs Damian Lillard
With Kevin Durant out with injury, this head-to-head between All-Star guards will define the early games of this series. Both excel in shot-making, playmaking and taking and making game-winning shots.
In Portland's four games against the Warriors this term, Lillard poured in 113 points, the most scored against Golden State in the regular season, averaging 28.3 points on 47.6 per cent shooting along with 6.5 assists.
"He can score the ball with the best of them," Warriors forward Draymond Green said of Lillard earlier in the postseason. "Dame has a chip on his shoulder. Has since the day he walked into this league. He plays like a guy from Oakland, with a chip on his shoulder."
Curry has endured a problematic postseason, limited by injury and foul trouble in the first and second rounds. However, after a scoreless first half in Game 6 against the Houston Rockets, he produced a 33-point second-half to seal the Warriors' progress to the Western Finals.
Two-time MVP Curry has made at least five three-pointers in eight of his last 10 games against Portland.
Last time out
Numbers game
117.4 - That's the Warriors offensive rating, their average points scored per 100 possessions, the best of any playoff team. It's significantly better than their regular season offensive rating (114.9, also a league-best figure).
That the former is a figure achieved despite starting center DeMarcus Cousins being out injured and Curry and Klay Thompson way short of their best and is illustrative of the otherworldly form Kevin Durant was in before he went down with a calf injury.
Without Durant in Game 6 against the Rockets, the Warriors slipped back into the sharpshooting, ball-sharing offense that characterised their first title win in 2015 with Thompson leading the offense in the first half before Curry took over in the second. The Warriors maintain their offensive potency without Durant, albeit by racking up points in a different manner.
One to watch (Trail Blazers): CJ McCollum
Cometh the hour, cometh McCollum. The shooting guard was superb in Portland's Game 7 win over the Denver Nuggets, stepping up as his backcourt partner Lillard struggled with his shot to pour in 37 points and drain critical mid-range shots down the stretch to seal the series.
McCollum averaged 18.0 points on 36.6 per cent shooting 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists in four games against the Warriors this season. He has made at least three three-pointers in seven of his last nine games against Golden State.
One to watch (Warriors): Draymond Green
While Durant, Curry and (to a lesser extent) Thompson have hogged the playoff headlines for the Warriors thus far, the effervescent Green has produced consistently superb postseason performances in the opening two rounds.
In 12 playoff games to date, Green has averaged 12.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 8.0 assists while anchoring the Warriors' defensive effort with 1.1 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.
Green continues to revel in his role as the emotional heart of the Warriors, using his on-court energy to inspire his team-mates.
The Trail Blazers face the Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in the early hours of Wednesday morning (2am), live on Sky Sports Arena.
