The Warriors started the series with their neighbor by falling at home 112-117, to lose the stadium advantage they had by finishing fifth in the regular season, in exchange for their long-standing neighbor being forced to play the play-off after finishing seventh.
But coach Steve Kerr’s team responded strongly Thursday to LeBron James and his companions and equalized before moving to his neighbor’s stadium to play the third and fourth games, thanks to Klay Thompson, who scored 30 points in three quarters, including 8 hat-tricks out of 21 for the defending champion, who entered the history of the league as the first team. He succeeds in 42 hat-tricks in his first two games in a series of “Playoffs”.
Simplicity is the key.
The Warriors surpassed what LeBron James achieved with his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who scored 40 hat-tricks in the first two games of his series with the Atlanta Hawks in 2016.
Thompson said after the match, “We realized that we had let the first game slip away from our hands. We entered (the field) and our attack was very smooth and we lost the ball on a few occasions, while reaching the unmarked player.”
And he believed that “if we keep things simple, the door can be opened” from the offensive side in order to reach the basket.
The simplicity of things and Currie’s passes, which reached 12 in his largest number in the “Playoffs” since 2014, gave effect in the second and third quarters, in which the defending champion scored 41 and 43 points, respectively, to enter the final quarter ahead by 30 points.
On Saturday, the two teams will move to Los Angeles to play the third match out of seven possible, noting that the team that precedes its opponent by winning four out of seven matches qualifies for the next round.
On Thursday, Thompson received great support from Currie, who scored 20 points in addition to his 12 assists, in a match with the Warriors, until the difference in the last quarter reached 32 points, despite the efforts of James, who scored 23 points with 7 rebounds, and the Japanese Roy Hachimura added 21, while Anthony sufficed. Davis, with 11 points and 7 rebounds.
James started the match strongly by scoring 14 points in the first quarter, contributing to ending it in favor of his team 33-26. The two teams.
Draymond Green played an influential role in the Warriors’ victory, not only because of his 11 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but also because of the defensive role he played in monitoring Davis and limiting his danger.
Due to his illness, center Kevin Looney started the match outside the Warriors’ starting five, giving Jamaicael Green the opportunity to start for only the second time this season.
Green took full advantage of this opportunity and scored 15 points in just 13 minutes, while Looney played only 12 minutes, during which he scored 6 points with 8 rebounds.
“At the end of the day, it’s 1-1,” no more
The Warriors took control early in the second quarter thanks to four threes from Thompson, who ended the quarter with 14 points, contributing to his team entering the halftime break, ahead 67-56, before then maintaining this advantage and gradually moving away from its guest until the difference reached 18 points 82-64. About 4 minutes into the beginning of the third quarter.
From here, the Lakers seemed completely unable to return to the meeting, which prompted coach Darvin Hamm to remove all of his key players in the last quarter.
Despite the Warriors’ dominance in this meeting, Thompson refused to talk about it being a message from his team to his neighbor because “we know that LeBron experienced everything (during his legendary career). + AD + (Anthony Davis) tested everything.”
He continued, “At the end of the day, the score is 1-1 (no more). We have to go to Los Angeles, win the match and go from there.”
Despite his suffering away from home in the regular season, the Warriors showed tremendous fighting spirit outside their stadium in the first round of the “Playoff” by defeating their other neighbor, the Sacramento Kings, in the fifth game, and then in the decisive seventh, in which Curry scored 50 points.
And the Warriors hope to continue this way when Saturday moves to the Lakers stadium.
2023-05-05 05:04:09
#NBA #League #Warriors #respond #Lakers #strongly #points #Thompson
