Hand up. I had Blazers +8. I am so confused by Portland’s lack of effort. Kanter, McCollum, and Damian played poorly. Even if you’re not shooting well, you have to step up on defense, like Klay Thompson does time and time again. Damian needs to stick like glue to Curry in transition. Damian would sag into THE PAINT on defense in transition against the best shooter of all-time. I’d rather him foul out with 6 landing zone fouls than what he did tonight. Also, Kanter and Collins would be in THE PAINT when Green would set a screen for Curry. Damian or C.J. would get screened and the big man was nowhere to be found. That is not how you guard Steph Curry. Curry was 9-15 from 3 because of Portland’s terrible defensive effort and gameplan.
I don’t care that Portland shot 25% from deep. I don’t care that every Portland starter, except for Aminu, had a negative assist/turnover ratio. I don’t even care that Portland had 17 more turnovers than they did in their last game. 17! I care that Portland had a chance to steal a game against a KD-less Warriors team and they seemed to not even try on defense. I don’t know if it was poor coaching or a Game 7 hangover, but they are going to get swept (again) if they don’t change. Warriors win 116-94 and take a 1-0 series lead. Golden State is 2.5-0 since KD got injured.