#Golden state warriors score last night series#

#Golden state warriors score last night series#

We're three games into this series and Ja Morant has not yet been held below 34 points. If this is the version of Klay we get for the rest of the playoffs, the Warriors can absolutely win the championship. He's the difference between the Warriors being very good and the Warriors being potentially unstoppable.

He isn't as instrumental to Golden State's possession-by-possession offense as Curry and he can't bend a defense as a ball-handler the way that Poole now can, but he's perhaps history's greatest heat-check shooter. This is the version of Thompson that the Warriors need to win the championship. That turned a seven-point lead-which came with plenty of Memphis momentum after Ja Morant sank a half-court shot to close the second quarter-into a 17-point gap that the Grizzlies couldn't overcome. After settling into some nice mid-range jumpers in the first half, Thompson quickly sank two 3s to open the third to help the Warriors into a 10-0 run. The raw numbers weren't quite there because it was a blowout, but Thompson was the player who blew this game wide open. On a day-to-day basis, it's almost impossible to know which version of Thompson is going to show up: the superstar from Golden State's dynasty years or the recovering shell from the earlier days of this season. He made just 21.4 percent of his 3s in those games. Over the next three, his scoring was nearly cut in half to 14 points. He averaged 24.5 points on 50 percent shooting from behind the arc in his first four postseason games. The playoffs have been a similar story thus far. He also topped 35 points four times in the last month of the regular season as he started to get back into game shape. He shot below 40 percent from the field in almost half of his regular-season games. This has been a season of extremes for Klay Thompson in his return to the Warriors after a two-year absence. There was an error processing your subscription. He was already unhittable… now opponents have to deal with this as well? It's almost unfair. It's as if Greg Maddux suddenly developed a 100 MPH fastball in his mid-30s. Kevin Durant, ruthlessly efficient as he is, is much more methodical than explosive. Stephen Curry has many gifts, but he's not this caliber of athlete. It's an advantage this Warriors team has never really had.

He's finding slow defenders, destroying them, and then making the extra pass when the defense reacts to him. Poole against Memphis has been the perfect melding of the two. They prefer their constant motion and beautiful game offense. Golden State has never really played this way. Teams need to identify their best ones and attack them relentlessly because, at this level, advantages are typically going to be few and far between. The defense panicked to try to take away an easy basket. Said slower defender was burned by Jordan Poole. Someone slower than Jordan Poole tried to defend Jordan Poole. Plays like this don't show up in the box score, but they're what made Poole so valuable in Game 3. Five Warriors had at least 17 points in the Game 3 victory, so it's not as though Golden State abandoned their principles against Memphis, but they do seem to have embraced a very simple fact: nobody on the Grizzlies can stay in front of Jordan Poole. It's the sort of system in which virtually anyone can lead the team in scoring. Golden State's egalitarian offense is unique in the NBA. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Game 3. With the win, Golden State has the opportunity to take what could be a significant lead in their best-of-seven series against Memphis on Monday night in Game 4. Ja Morant put up big numbers for the Grizzlies again, finishing with 34 points, seven assists and three rebounds, but the balanced attack from the Warriors was too much to overcome as five players finished in double figures, led by Stephen Curry with 30 points and six assists while Jordan Poole chipped in 27 points of his own. The Memphis Grizzlies got off to a hot start on the offensive end, specifically from beyond the arc, but they were unable to capitalize on an early lead and ultimately were run out of the Chase Center in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinals series against the Golden State Warriors as the home team came away with a 142-112 victory.