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Blazers host Warriors in Game 4 Monday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 5/9/2016  at  12:45:00 PM
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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (79-11)

at PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (49-42)

NBA Playoffs
Western Conference – Round 2
Tip-off: Monday, 10:35 p.m. ET
Line: Golden State -5.0, Total: 214.0

The Blazers will be hoping to even up the series when they host the Warriors in Game 4 on Monday.

Portland didn’t seem to have much of a chance in this series after the way the team played in Games 1 and 2. The Blazers did, however, come out and win Game 3 120-108 as 2.5-point home underdogs. They shot 46.5% from the floor and turned the ball over just 10 times in that game, so it’s clear they’ll need to be extremely efficient offensively moving forward in this series. One thing worth noting coming into this game is that 11 of the past 14 games played between these teams have gone OVER the total. The Warriors are an impressive 15-5 ATS after a game where they made 60% of their free throws or worse over the past two seasons. They’re also 17-6 ATS revenging a straight up loss versus an opponent as a road favorite over the past three seasons. The Blazers are, however, 12-3 ATS in home games when playing only their second game in five days on the year. PG Stephen Curry (Knee) remains out for Golden State and SF Maurice Harkless (Hip) is questionable for Portland in this one.

The Warriors are going to be hungry for a victory in Game 4, as they know that they can really steal this series with a win on Monday. Two guys that will be ready to step it up in this one are PF Draymond Green (17.9 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 7.4 APG, 1.9 BPG, 1.3 SPG in playoffs) and SG Klay Thompson (27.0 PPG, 1.3 SPG in playoffs). Both guys were unbelievable in Game 3, combining to score 72 points on 13-for-21 shooting from the outside. Green is not normally that aggressive as a scorer, but he was feeling it in that game and knows that his team needs him to get buckets with Curry out. Thompson, meanwhile, has been hot all series and will need to continue to let shots fly moving forward. Golden State must, however, be better on the defensive end in Game 4. The team will not be able to win games if its opponent is scoring 120 points, so it will need to make a lot of adjustments for Monday.

The Blazers came to play in Game 3 and they’ll now be playing to even up this series on Monday. If Portland is going to win this one then PG Damian Lillard (25.2 PPG, 5.8 APG, 1.3 SPG in playoffs) will need to do yet another Steph Curry impression. Lillard was 14-for-27 from the floor and 8-for-13 from three in Game 3. He finished that one with 40 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in 42 minutes of action. Lillard is a lot faster than all of the Warriors’ guards and he must continue to take advantage of that moving forward. SG C.J. McCollum (19.3 PPG in playoffs) could really help Lillard by finding his stroke in this series. McCollum was a 41.7% shooter from the outside during the regular season, but he is shooting just 29.5% in the playoffs. He’s also a miserable 2-for-14 from three in this series. If McCollum starts to knock down some shots then it’d really open things up for him and his teammates moving forward.


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