Portland Trail Blazers' CJ McCollum, left, and Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson reach for the ball during the first half of Game 1 of the NBA basketball playoffs Western Conference finals Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
ASSOCIATED PRESSFor the Portland Trail Blazers, the result of the opening game of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State won’t matter as much as how they respond to it. True they looked awful in a 116-94 defeat Tuesday at Oracle Arena, but the end result is they trail the best-of-seven series 1-0 after a road loss, by no means a disaster.
“Hopefully it’s just one game,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “That’s why it’s not one-and-done. We’ve got a series, it’s one loss. We’ve got to play better, particularly at the offensive end, but we’ve got to be better at both ends.”
Offensively, they struggled to get clean looks at the basket, and their backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ Lillard, shot a combined 11 for 31 from the field and scored 36 points, one less than McCollum scored alone in the series-clinching Game 7 win against Denver two days earlier.
Lillard struggled just to get shots up, taking 12, five fewer than he’s had in any of his 12 previous games in this year’s playoffs, as the Warriors ran multiple defenders at him.
“They gave a lot of attention to the ball when I was coming off screens,” Lillard said. “Even when I was in isolation situations, I was seeing two or three people. I think that was obvious that they were trying to make things hard for me by making me see bodies.”
Lillard had more turnovers (seven) than field goals (four), contributing to Portland’s giveaway bonanza. The Blazers finished with 21 turnovers, a playoff high and matching their high game of the regular season, which they hit three times. Those games, though, all ended with Portland wins, over Boston, Memphis and Philadelphia, and the turnovers led to 23, 15 and 16 points by the opponent.
Tuesday’s 21 turnovers led to 31 Golden State points.
“We struggled with turnovers the whole game,” Stotts said.
As the Blazers guards struggled, Golden State's backcourt sizzled, with Stephen Curry alone matching Lillard and McCollum’s combined 36 points as he shot 12 for 23 from the field and 9 for 15 on 3-pointers. His backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, added 26 points.
As a team Golden State shot 17 for 33 on 3-pointers, a deadly number for a team that went 25-2 during the regular season in games they made at least 25 3’s. Too often, the Warriors got open or lightly contested shots behind the arc.
“We gotta bring our guys up and run them off the line,” Lillard said. “Tonight they were setting solid screens and they were coming off shooting practice shots. That’s the last thing we need if we want to have any chance to beat this team.”
The Blazers were coming off the high of winning Game 7 on the road against Denver, but the win came just two days before, a turnaround so short they didn’t even go back to Portland before flying to the Bay Area, and they did not hold a practice or even a shootaround before tipping off at 6 p.m. Did all of that cause the Blazers to come out flat?
“It’s possible having played a tough emotional game two nights ago, but I don’t think anybody will use that as an excuse,” Stotts said.
The Blazers also know that Golden State was without Kevin Durant, who leads all players in scoring at 34.2 points during this season’s playoffs, but is out with a calf injury. Durant’s status remains uncertain for Game 2 on Thursday.
The Blazers have shown resiliency throughout these playoffs in making their deepest run since 2000, but they’ll have to go to the well again against a playoff-tested team that won three of the last four NBA titles.
“Once we lace our shoes up and put our uniforms on, it’s fair and square,” Lillard said. “You gotta go out there and handle your business.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/miketokito/2019/05/15/loss-in-game-1-is-no-disaster-for-trail-blazers-but-they-have-plenty-to-clean-up/
2019-05-15 05:16:00Z
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