Without KD, these two teams seem to match up pretty well. Two super backcourts and a lot of roll players. Last game, Dame had an off night, shooting 3/17. My experience with top talent is that they normally bounce back from a bad showing. At the same time, Steph shot lights out in the first game. I’ll be surprised if he repeats that performance, considering his overall shooting record throughout the playoffs. Then again, KD is expected back for Game 4, so Blazers must know they need to do some damage before KD returns. That wasn’t much of a showing by Blazers in Game 1. I expect a much better effort here. They may not win, but it should go down to the wire. Blazers +7.5.
I’m staying away as well - the reason curry shot so well was because Kanter was guarding ball screens from the free throw line. 7 or 8 of Curry’s shots were uncontested practice shots. If they don’t play Kanter they lose the edge in rebounding and having Aminu or Collins playing presents other challenges. The only way Gsw doesn’t cover is if they lay back - which happened many times in the regular season - only once in game 2 v clippers in the playoffs - I wouldn’t count on those chances. Dame is only 2-18 at oracle, despite doing well individually in many of those games.
