Warriors rally for 110-99 win over Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers outplayed the Warriors for three quarters in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series.
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 27 points, including three massive three-point shots down the stretch.
Draymond Green added 17 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists.
The Warriors are now 92-6 (including the postseason) there since Steve Kerr took over as head coach at the start of season.
[...] their late surge Tuesday night, the Warriors were in trouble.
Nearly every time they threatened, and stirred the crowd into a frenzy, the Blazers quickly and emphatically responded.
Lillard made the free throw and Maurice Harkless soon sank a three-pointer to restore the lead to 63-56.
Soon thereafter, when the Warriors again cut Portland’s advantage to three, Lillard again responded with a dagger of a three-pointer.
[...] as the quarter drew to a close with the Warriors trailing by eight, Leandro Barbosa missed a difficult fast-break layup.
The Blazers made a couple sleek passes to find Lillard on the wing, and he drained another three just before the buzzer.
The Blazers, remember, had finished off the Clippers barely more than 30 hours earlier.
The real Warriors, conversely, turned into any old NBA team on offense, standing around too much - not moving the ball or themselves with their usual vigor.
Green clearly noticed this out-of-character habit during his regular stay on the bench to start the second quarter.
Soon after he returned, he demonstratively whipped a pass to Harrison Barnes in the corner, and Barnes promptly drove the baseline for a resounding dunk.
Green also made sure he and his teammates revived the motion in their offense, and that created space for Ian Clark to do his slashing, scoring thing.