Arron Afflalo injured in Trail Blazers’ loss to Warriors
41. Final. 105. 34. 116
The Portland Trail Blazers played between good and excellent basketball against the best team in the league for most of the night. Unfortunately, part of the “not most” came near the end, and as we all know, most basketball games are decided somewhere near their end. As such, the Golden State Warriors, riding another MVP performance from Stephen Curry (45 points, including an offensive fourth-quarter barrage), knocked away the Blazers 116-105.
Of greater concern to Portland was that starting shooting guard Arron Afflalo left the game and did not return, holding his right arm. A TNT reporter relayed that Afflalo felt “something tear” on the back of his shoulder. The Portland Trail Blazers have said nothing besides Afflalo suffered a right arm injury. He will be evaluated tomorrow.
Recap
The Blazers kicked things off by proving they could hang with the best team in the league. Never did Portland look confused or hesitant: they didn’t always make the right decisions, but those they made were made with authority. It helped that Golden State’s 56% to 42% shooting edge was blunted by Portland putting up five more shots in the quarter, and that Afflalo decided to join the party with six first-quarter points where production from him lately has been sparse. Regardless of the reasons, the Blazers were probably quite happy to be down just 30-27 after one, and even that deficit was because Curry hit a three to end the quarter.
The Blazers kept it close despite not hitting a three until eight minutes to go in the second, and took a 35-34 lead off of a Robin Lopez free throw. Then C.J. McCollum got a block, Meyers Leonard got a huge dunk, McCollum got a three, and a Lillard layin forced a Warriors timeout, capping an 11-0 run with Curry on the bench. The Warriors hadn’t scored from the field in about four minutes at this point, and as Lillard hit a three, it was an 18-2 Portland run, now up double-digits on a confused Golden State.
The Warriors righted the ship off a few Curry threes to the surprise of nobody. Then the Warriors did their Warriors thing, and as the crowd reached deafening levels of cheering, the Warriors flipped a deficit into a 57-54 halftime lead. The Blazers couldn’t have felt too awful about that, despite letting a lead slip: basketball is, after all, a game of runs.
The SS Golden State Warriors continued sailing to open the third, and the Blazers were down 65-56 with 10 minutes to go in the quarter. Ick… but then the Blazers went on another run (10-2 run). With the “game of runs” thing really playing itself out, the Blazers had attempted 10 more shots than the Warriors to close the third with both teams knotted at 84 points.
The Blazers needed to play very good defense to close this one out, and very good defense they got, especially from Allen Crabbe and McCollum. With ample opportunity to gain momentum, the Blazers’ offense betrayed them. Luckily, so did the Warriors’ with Curry and Thompson on the bench. The Blazers clawed ahead for a second, 93-92 with six minutes to go, but the Warriors answered. Back and forth it went, and the Oracle Arena crowd was loud.
When Curry pulled up for a ridiculous three to force a timeout, the Warriors were up five. That wasn’t so bad. But then the Blazers had to call another immediately after as Afflalo needed to leave the game, holding his right arm. He did not return.
With the score 104-103 Warriors with two minutes to go, Curry drew a foul shooting a three. Meanwhile, the Blazers found themselves on the receiving end of some highly physical play, and the Golden State Currys… errm Warriors, rained buckets from the heavens. A whopping 17 of Curry’s 45 points came in the last five minutes, and he outscored the Blazers by himself during that stretch. The dust settled, the Blazers were still missing a starter (again), and they resigned themselves to the 116-105 loss.
Players
Arron Afflalo left the game and did not return, and will have an MRI on his right arm tomorrow. There are no further details at this time, He finished with eight points.
LaMarcus Aldridge got pushed around by Andrew Bogut (who didn’t?), but he took it and dished it back as best he could, en route to 27 points, four dimes, two blocks, and a steal, though he had just six boards. He shot just 11-24, but interestingly went 2-3 from deep. When he’s open (and even when he’s not), he can hit those threes, as we found out this season.
Damian Lillard had a respectable 20-6-8, but with no Wesley Matthews and (possibly) with no Afflalo, the Blazers will need to lean heavily on him for increased production moving forward. Part of Lillard’s lack of real ignition came from his perplexing inability to draw fouls. He got to the paint plenty, and was bumped more than once, but shot just two free throws.
C.J. McCollum continues busting out. Adding to his career-high streak, he now has six games in a row with double-digit scoring. Shooting 8-14, McCollum’s number will keep getting called if he keeps stepping up. It’s telling that he played about as many minutes as Aldridge, scoring 17 points.
Nicolas Batum was on a minor triple-double alert with 7-10-8, a steal, and a block, but could not break the seal through a grueling, game-high 41 minutes of play.
Notes
- Curry set an NBA-record with 273 made threes in a season. Congrats to him: he’s an amazing player. The MVP race between him and, likely, James Harden of the Houston Rockets should be tight.
- The Blazers are two games behind the Clippers and Spurs for home court advantage in the first round, and 2.5 games behind the Grizzlies and the Rockets for second place in the West. They have three games remaining. Barring a lot of skill and luck, the Blazers are probably not going to have home court in the first round.
They now get one day off before hosting the Utah Jazz for their final home game of the season on Saturday, April 11th.