Golden State Warriors close in on Western Conference final berth

Golden State established a 2-0 lead in the series with a 115-104 victory over the Jazz on Thursday night.

Let’s take a look at three takeaways from this Game 3 between the Jazz and Warriors.

On the next possession, Kevin Durant – scorching hot most of the night – went a simpler route to shove his dagger. They’ve dealt admirably with a barrage of injuries and disappointments, turning challenges into opportunities and transforming setbacks into their best season in years. The Warriors regained the lead on a lob from Green to Igoudala and the quarter ended with them up 72-70. This evening only three players (KD, Curry, Iguodala) met that benchmark. Golden State was held under 106 points for the first time this postseason. The Warriors, meanwhile, gained a risky dimension to their offense, largely immunizing it from the shooting funks that occasionally envelop it.

But Utah capitalized on slow nights from both Curry and Klay Thompson on Saturday, staying within striking range for much of the fourth quarter.

This is as close to a must-win game as you can get for Utah.

This series is about pride for the Jazz now – we’ll see if even that is a strong enough force to overcome this Warriors behemoth. In Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Green was retroactively charged with a Flagrant 1 for taking a swipe at LeBron James’ genitals after James stepped over Green. It’s uncertain if they’ll have starting point guard George Hill available after he’s missed the past two games with left big toe soreness. Three straight times, he abused the smaller Gordon Hayward (team-high 29 points), drilling unblockable fadeaways over his outstretched arms.

After a Rodney Hood 3-point field goal with a minute to play before the break, the Jazz took a 48-47 lead.

After many months of waiting for this Jazz-Warriors series to come to fruition, it hasn’t been all that great of a series. “I try to do the other things. and once I do that, I feel like it opens up my scoring a little bit more”. Despite the fact that the Jazz trail 0-3, they are still getting into a rhythm against a new team. With that chance squandered away, game four could get ugly right out of the gate. Warriors PG Stephen Curry has made 270 career 3-pointers in the postseason.

Kevin Durant led the way with a double-double of 38 points and 13 rebounds.

This Golden State Warriors team has required no introduction this season, no ascent or coronation. Shut down one component of Golden State’s offense and another component instantly kicks into overdrive. The Warriors won the battle of the boards 51-42.

Durant and Curry each tallied 11 points in the period, but it wasn’t necessarily off crisp ball movement and in the flow of the offence.

Draymond Green is averaging an impressive tally of 14.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 3.0 blocks and 2.0 steals during the ongoing 2017 NBA Playoffs.

Snyder is fully aware that the Jazz will need to do more than just improve to prolong the organization’s first playoff adventure in five years.

This is the type of mentality and mindset that the Golden State Warriors need from Durant going forward. Hayward had 29 points on 7-for-18 shooting, with six assists. Rudy Gobert was a monster in the paint, scoring 21 points and collecting 15 rebounds.

“Keep the same attitude”, Jazz center Rudy Gobert said. Joe Johnson has disappeared after being a huge cog for the Jazz in Round One. It also took the boisterous Jazz fans out of the game down the stretch.

The Jazz had hoped a return to their home floor on Saturday would spark a resurgence, and it briefly looked as if it had.