Warriors pound Trail Blazers 118-106 to take Game 1 of Western semi series

OAKLAND - The Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers waited 46 years for their first head-to-head postseason matchup. The Warriors, at least, were ready for it.

Even without injured superstar Stephen Curry in Game 1 of this NBA second-round series, they dizzied Portland with a first-quarter flurry that must have the visitors wondering what, if anything, they can do to make this a contest.

“I don’t know if demoralized is the right word,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said after Golden State had beaten his team 118-106 at Oracle Arena. “Certainly wasn’t the start we wanted.”

It was exactly the start the Warriors hoped for. Klay Thompson nailed a 3-point shot 17 seconds into the game, and you could have switched over to A’s-Astros at that moment. Thompson hit a layup to push the lead to 14-4 at the 7:31 mark. Leandro Barbosa drained a 3-pointer of his own to run it to 28-14 with 1:55 left in the quarter. And when Thompson re-entered the game to stick yet another trey with 6 seconds on the clock, it was 37-17.

That 20-point lead was the largest the Warriors have had in a postseason game in the shot clock era, which started in the 1954-55 season. Thompson, by himself, outscored Portland in the quarter.

It wasn’t like the Trail Blazers quit after that. They occasionally counter-punched throughout the day and made Golden State work. But the Warriors eventually pushed their advantage to as many as 26 points, and were never seriously threatened.

Game 2 is Tuesday night here, and the situation already seems fairly desperate for the Blazers. It’s almost certain Curry won’t play in that game, but he said Sunday he believes his chances are good to return for Game 3 at Portland on Saturday.

Whether Curry is on the court or not, the Trail Blazers will have to find a way to make their shots fall. Their stellar backcourt combination of Damian Lillard (8 of 26) and C.J. McCollum (5 of 17) combined to shoot 30.2 percent from the floor. A lot of Warriors played a hand in that inaccuracy (as did a chest cold that reduced Lillard’s voice to a rasp after the game), but guards Thompson and Shaun Livingston get the lion’s share of the credit.

Really, though, the core of the Warriors’ defensive excellence was in the paint, where center Andrew Bogut and power forward Draymond Green came out fired up and ready to defend the rim.

“The whole year, Steph, our backcourt, they got a lot of attention, but people don’t realize how good our frontcourt is,” Thompson said.

“It’s the best defensive frontcourt in the NBA, and I’ve seen it for a long time. With those two out there, it makes it tough for teams to finish at the rim. Both are great communicators out there. Makes my job easy.”

Bogut blocked three shots in Game 1, Green two. (Bogut now has 63 blocked shots for the Warriors in the postseason, tying George Johnson’s franchise record.) And they were unofficial team leaders in elbows thrown and warnings shouted.

“You know, it really sets the tempo of the game,” Green said, a scratch decorating the tip of his nose. “You’re not going to come in here and just get layups. You’re not going to come in here and get anything easy.”

Trail Blazers center Mason Plumlee, overpowered inside all day, didn’t make a single field goal on seven attempts.

On the offensive end, Thompson continues to step into the crazy-scorer role vacated by Curry when he sprained his knee against Houston in the first round of the playoffs. Sunday, Thompson finished with 37 points and stroked seven treys in 14 attempts.

“Not many guys in the league who could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes and score 37 points, too,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and that was a really amazing night for him, just in terms of his all-around play.”

Thompson became the first NBA player with seven or more 3-pointers in three consecutive postseason games, according to Elias. Seems like something Curry would do, right? And so did that 30-footer.

“I’ve seen Steph do it a lot,” Thompson said. “Just trying to be like him. Those are shots that I don’t really want to take that much during the game, but if you make five or six in a row and you feel your guy is off you, I don’t mind hoisting one up a game. If it goes in, I’ll live with it. But these guys see me taking plenty of bad shots.”

Green recorded the first triple-double of the 2016 NBA playoffs, tallying 23 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Small forward Harrison Barnes chipped in with 12 rebounds.

When the game began, Curry was in the trainers’ room receiving treatment on his gimpy right knee. By midway through the second quarter he had taken his now-customary seat next to assistant coach Jarron Collins on the Warriors bench. And because he’s Stephen Curry, when Oracle sent an army of McDonald’s gift cards drifting down from the rafters by parachute, one of them came right yo the wounded MVP. He handed it over to a nearby kid.

With the game all but wrapped up by halftime, the Oracle crowd was looking for something to get excited about. They found it when backup Warriors center Anderson Varejao tripped Portland’s Gerald Henderson, and they both were hit with technical fouls after jawing nose to nose.

A couple of minutes later, with Varejao on the Golden State bench and Henderson set up a few feet in front of him at the 3-point line, they started yapping again. Referee Monty McCutchen teed them up again, and both were ejected.

“Sometimes things take place on the court that you just lose control of,” Green said, “but I know both of those guys will come ready to play in Game 2.”

Which is more than can be said for the Trail Blazers in Game 1.

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.