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Draymond Green and the Warriors rejected the Blazers' best effort in Game 1

Ben Rohrbach
Senior NBA writer

The Portland Trail Blazers got 75 combined points from C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard, and it still wasn’t nearly enough against a Golden State Warriors team that looked every bit the NBA title favorite.

Warriors Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant nearly matched the potent Blazers duo, combining for 61 points, Draymond Green fell two steals shy of the first 5×5 in league playoff history (per Basketball Reference), and the Warriors pulled away in the fourth quarter to take Game 1 of the series, 121-109.

“Once we stopped scrambling around and started stopping them two,” Green, who finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, five blocks and three steals, told TNT’s Lisa Salters. “it all clicked.”

Playing without the injured Jusuf Nurkic, who is still recovering from a late-season fracture in his leg and was ruled out for Game 1, the Blazers needed their explosive backcourt to bring the firepower if they had any hope of matching the Warriors. So, McCollum and Lillard brought blowtorches. The two scored 48 of Portland’s 56 first-half points, with McCollum netting a team playoff record 27 (on 11-of-15 shooting) in the opening 24 minutes, to enter the break tied 56-56 and give the No. 1 seed a scare.

Over the summer, after Curry wrapped up his second straight Most Valuable Player campaign, McCollum was asked by a Twitter follower if the Warriors star could guard him. The answer:

That may be true, but the problem, as ever, is that the Warriors feature two former MVPs on the roster, and they played like it on Sunday. Curry and Durant combined for a routine 29 points in the first half, and then exploded for another 22 on 8-of-12 shooting in the third quarter (including 14 from Curry on just seven shots), giving Golden State some breathing room midway through the third quarter.

Stephen Curry feeds off the Oracle Arena crowd. (AP)
Stephen Curry feeds off the Oracle Arena crowd. (AP)

And those aren’t the only stars Golden State rolls out, of course. Green did his usual damage from everywhere on the floor, including a highlight-reel block on Portland’s Noah Vonleh, Klay Thompson found his way to double figures despite a subpar overall shooting night (6-of-16) and the Warriors even got productive minutes off the bench from unlikely playoff hero JaVale McGee in the third.

The Blazers desperately needed help from anybody beyond McCollum and Lillard, and they finally got some in the third quarter. Mo Harkless scored seven points in the frame, Evan Turner drilled a pair of go-ahead 3-pointers and the seldom-used Pat Connaughton converted a 3-point play at the buzzer to help the Blazers claw back and send the game into the fourth quarter tied at 88.

Then, the Warriors did what they do in the fourth quarter. Green put the chokehold on defense:

“I’m the ultimate help man of all-times … and we have two guys on Damian and C.J. at all times, so I can come weak-side and they don’t see me,” added Green. “I sneak in there and get a couple blocks.”

And Golden State’s relentless offense did the rest. The Warriors shot 53 percent in the fourth quarter, holding Portland to just 29 percent, and they closed the game with a 33-21 edge in the final 12 minutes. That was despite just two shots from Curry and only a pair of his 29 points coming in the fourth quarter. Durant (32 points, 10 rebounds) was efficient as always, collecting eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in the fourth, Green added 10 in the quarter and Ian Clark chipped in with seven points on three shots to nail it down.

It’s tough to imagine the Blazers getting anything more from McCollum (41 points, eight rebounds) and Lillard (34 points, five rebounds) , and they still lost by a dozen, which doesn’t bode well for a Portland team that thought it could win the series in six. Outside of Nurkic returning in Game 2 and playing out of his mind on an injured leg, the Warriors just have too many weapons in their arsenal, even when Portland’s flame-throwing backcourt tandem brings their blowtorches.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!