Warriors’ Green proves prophetic: Portland done
The Trail Blazers didn’t “quit” Wednesday night, but they’re most certainly “done” after the Warriors’ 125-121 Game 5 victory at Oracle Arena.
Just as Green planned, his bulletin-board material was enough to spark one, last-ditch effort from the overachieving Blazers, but more important, it also forced his teammates to avoid complacency.
Klay Thompson scored a game-high 33 points, Stephen Curry played through right knee soreness to put up 29 points and 11 assists, and the Warriors got 38 points off the bench.
On top of his energizing yawps, Green also provided 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
“We wouldn’t mind if he didn’t throw that out there, but that’s Draymond,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said.
In the first half, he had a 1:55 sequence during which he blocked Ed Davis shot out of bounds off Davis, assisted Shaun Livingston on a dunk, forced Maurice Harkless to miss a pointblank shot and found Thompson for a three-pointer.
In the second half, despite limping and having to make a brief visit to the locker room, Green was responsible for nine straight points.
The Warriors had an unusually poor three-point-shooting performance for most of the night, so Green powered his way to the basket and drew 10 free-throw attempts.