The injury of star forward Kevin Duran forced the Golden State Warriors to regain the old version of champions that they developed to perfection in the first game of the Western Conference finals, played last night, and won 116-94 to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Again, guard Stephen Curry showed his best version of an unstoppable player in the shots to the basket by scoring 36 points, including nine triples and guard Klay Thompson supported him with another 26 goals, without the Trail Blazers defense being able to stop his shooting inspiration.
While power forward Draymond Green also recovered the excellence of what a versatile player should be on the field by contributing a double-double of 12 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two ball recoveries and three blocks.
Along with them, a group of players, who supported them with a great defense and the necessary baskets that would allow the Warriors to stay comfortably in front of the scoreboard, while the stellar trio took minutes of rest.
All of them led by coach Steve Kerr, who, again, as he did against the Houston Rockets in the semifinal series, moved the bench perfectly, and made the changes just and at the right time.
“Maybe we had to remember our origins when we began to be a winning team, and all that knowledge has allowed us to confirm that they have always been there,” said Kerr. “But the most important thing is that we learned them, assimilated them and carried them into our identification as a team.”
The Warriors who faced the Trail Blazers were once again the team with full coordination, anticipation in the play, excellent selection in the basket shots, reflected by the statistics with more than 50 percent accuracy in the field and in the triples and 84 from the personnel line.
As if all of the above were not enough, Curry, aside from always moving the team perfectly, when he has the ball in his hands and is inspired, simply, nobody could stop him.
“We had no chance of winning,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “They beat us in every facet of the game and Curry was unstoppable.”
Stotts acknowledged that if they can’t find a solution to curb Curry’s shooting inspiration, regardless of whether Durant may return in Game 2, or center DeMarcus Cousins later in the series, his team wouldn’t have much of a chance of winning it.
“We have to play better defense, control the ball and be more effective in the shots to the basket, none of this we contribute with consistency in the first game and the result leaves no doubt who was the best team on the field”, admitted Stotts .
Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, the local Bucks team, with their star, Greek Nigerian power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, as leader, are ready to face the Toronto Raptors in the first game of the Eastern Conference finals.
“It will be the most important game for us and unlike what happened in the series against the Boston Celtics, who lost it, this time we cannot allow it,” said Antetokounmpo, who has averages of 27.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the nine playoff games he has played.
The Bucks star, who is also the league’s top Most Valuable Player (MVP) contender, believes that the Raptors cannot be given a chance at home court advantage.
“It’s not a team like the Boston Celtics, who beat us, but we knew we could come back. Against the Raptors it is not the rival that will allow it, hence we will have to ensure the field advantage from the beginning of the series.
Antetokounmpo’s thinking is the same that exists within the entire Bucks team, but they also think that if they manage to control forward Kawhi Leonard in the end, he will be a more accessible opponent than if they had the Philadelphia Sixers.
Leonard, outside of Game 7’s winning basket against the Sixers, has become the only consistent player the Raptors have.
Hence, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, who knows him very well for having developed it with the San Antonio Spurs when he was Gregg Popovich’s assistant, is convinced that if they control Leonard, the chances of seeing his team in the NBA finals for the first time since 1974, when they played in the Western Conference, will be older.
«Our team knows what it has to do on the field against a rival like the Raptors, but the key will be the work we do in marking Leonard, who together with Giannis (Antetokounmpo) will be the two who can unbalance the score in favor from one other team, “Budenholzer stressed.”