Written by Ethan Sherwood Strauss at ESPN.com
The Golden State Warriors clamped down on the Portland Trail Blazers 110-81 on Wednesday to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference first-round series, using a dominant defensive performance that belied their injury issues.
Yes, the Warriors were down just one of four All-Stars, but they were vulnerable going into this one. Not only was Kevin Durant out because of his strained left calf, but Golden State was also without the services of Shaun Livingston and Matt Barnes. Rookie second-rounder Patrick McCaw would have to start at guard. (He acquitted himself nicely, by the way.) While few teams are better equipped to handle the absence of three wings in their rotation, the Dubs were, as coach Steve Kerr put it pregame, “pretty thin.”
Perhaps that’s why Stephen Curry started out assertively hunting his own shot, going hero ball on a couple of early 3-point attempts. Usually Curry likes to set the table out of the gate, but given Golden State’s holes, it was on him to self-generate some offense. He had an off night shooting, but his attack mode was generally beneficial, as illustrated by his plus-32 mark in 31 minutes of play.
“You’ve got to be aggressive,” Curry said. “Obviously you’re missing 25 points, 26 points [out of] the lineup. So the shot is available you kind of do it a different way. But tonight we didn’t really get it going much or consistently throughout the game. We had some dry spots, but we won the game with our defense tonight.”
Golden State got a solid start from center Zaza Pachulia (5-of-8, 10 points) and continued to punish the Blazers with their bigs. While center was supposed to be a weakness after this roster saw Andrew Bogut traded and lost Festus Ezeli to free agency, the Warriors’ bigs have exceeded expectations this season. Game 2 was a showcase beyond Draymond Green’s normally excellent play as a substitute center (a high-energy 12-rebound, 10-assist game).
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