Zach Loathe tweeted this after the game and I feel so much similarly to that it seems like this is the game from the warriors that we've seen a million times the last five years more exciting when Kevin Durant isn't playing probably but they go down pretty big the other team is on fire in the first half and then they hit you with this incredible run of stuff and clay threes and get an unlikely role player to contribute play great defense down the end and steal again that it looked like they had

no business winning there are some departures from that narrative but this was it in many ways a classic golden state warriors victory you see this is over now over and what sense because I think we know who's going to win this series but I have no confidence in how long it's going to last like I could I might my instinct is still five but I could see this still going six I thought the Blazers played significantly better and a lot of the gains that they made are repeatable to me even though they did end up losing this game or

you know I guess a sweep is possible and we also know now that Kevin Durant is not going to play in the next two games neither is to Marcus cousins yeah I mean maybe even three it looks like yeah maybe even three is not supposed to be reevaluated for a week right so there's three more games in the next week so that yeah because they're playing every other day yeah so if very well could be it's a fair it's a fair estimation to say that neither one of those guys would be back before a game six which may or may not happen so I think you know so is the series over you know the Blazers

please listen to our next three ups the blazers are probably are not going to win the series barring of a subsequent injury to somebody new like the the stuff that we already know I think that it would be very tough for them to win the series they have to win four out of five games but they played really well and I thought you know get they figured a couple of things out which will break will break down over the course of this podcast and barring the warriors getting that talent upgrade at some point I think a lot of those things will hold over well 18 out of 39 three point shooting probably will not hold over right and

who made a lot of those 18 as well went out a lot but a fair portion of it so I mean Alfruca Miniu hitting one I mean the early part of this game Miniu and Harcless I think in the first half those guys were three for five from three they finished the game three for five from three as well but you know that's that it's not found money but it's it's pretty significant Myers Leonard had some big plays as well but you know Damon C.J. can play better than they did in the second half that's for sure yeah I would view the games in Portland as 50 50 proposition

maybe if the Warriors wouldn't game three then game four is more in the Warriors favor than a 50 50 proposition so yeah I could easily see this series coming back at 22 but even then the Warriors it would be big time favorites the first half 65 to 50 for the Blazers

and yeah they were absolutely on fire Lillard and McComb were six of nine from three in the first half and Lillard was actually shut out in the first quarter although he passed the ball well and then he hit a couple of absolute bombs done the end of the second and McComb was on fire for a while

it was reminiscent of his the huge first half that he had in game one of the series between these two teams in 2017 but then he really fizzled down the end as well finishing nine out of 23 I thought he had some really really good looks at the end as we'll get to that really could have changed this game quite a bit

I mean if you want to look at some of the other things that really hurt them I think Terry Stotz did the right thing in just going with more offense they played with Seth Curry at the three for large portions of this game

and and for a lot of the time that was their most effective group until that feat for last four minutes or so and getting that extra shooter on the floor the Warriors had a lot of problems

stopping this team Portland looked much better against the traps Stotz went to Myers Leonard who brings a pick and pop element Leonard is also their best

passer at the big position that's something that he was lauded for early in his career and it's kind of gotten lost as he's been this overpaid guy who's been kind of a whipping boy

and defensively that's well earned but he made some really nice passes in this game and they strung those traps out and made it so it was just so difficult for the guard initially

defending the guy with the ball to get back to his man and then by that time it was such a great distance for the bait to get back to his man that they really were opening huge gashes in the Warriors defense

it was excellent execution they they made adjustments I thought I'm both ends that worked the pick and roll it was another of those defensively where they did bring the bigs up higher and it's

cancer just played less which he actually was plus four in his 19 minutes I did the one thing they didn't do was try to play him when stuff was off the floor

I thought that again they missed opportunities there they did it for a couple of minutes in the first half but it seemed like

those pretty haphazard not intentional what else stood out to you about just the meat of this game here before we talk about the end

the theory for why teams do not go small especially in the perimeter more often than they do I mean you could think about an easy

example this is Rick Carlisle playing three small guys often you know like three small guards on his second unit the

Energizer Bunny unit is that they can be exploited defensively and in this state the

Warriors don't really have great personnel to do so they you know whether we're talking about the mixed lineups I

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