Warriors Cruise to 106-94 Win vs. Jazz to Take 1-0 Series Lead
The Golden State Warriors rolled past the Utah Jazz 106-94 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Tuesday night at Oracle Arena.
Following eight days off after a sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers, the Warriors came out looking sharp and refreshed as Stephen Curry led the scoring charge with 22 points (7-of-11 shooting), seven rebounds and five assists.
In fact, Curry was so locked in that he put Defensive Player of the Year candidate Rudy Gobert in a blender with a series of crossovers on the perimeter in the second quarter before he knifed his way to the cup for two:
As NBC Sports' Monte Poole pointed out, a banged up Curry wouldn't have been able to make that play a year ago:
Kevin Durant (17 points) and Klay Thompson (15 points) also filled it up, but Draymond Green set the tone with another balanced and brilliant display.
In 34 minutes, Green stuffed his stat line with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals.
A disruptive force, he was able to create several live-ball turnovers that facilitated transition opportunities, and those efforts allowed the Warriors to post a 29-6 edge in fast-break points.
A prime example came in the second quarter, when Green single-handedly stopped a two-on-one Utah break, which allowed Andre Iguodala to find Durant for a vicious transition flush:
The other issue for Utah was that it didn't have enough firepower to push past the Western Conference's No. 1 seed, according to the Bay Area News Group's Marcus Thompson:
Both Gordon Hayward (12 points, 4-of-15 shooting) and Joe Johnson (11 points, 4-of-10 shooting) were in funks, and that meant the Jazz were operating at a deficit.
| Gordon Hayward | 34 | 12 | 4/15 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | -7 |
| Joe Johnson | 22 | 11 | 4/10 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -15 |
| Rudy Gobert | 30 | 13 | 5/7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | -3 |
| Derrick Favors | 12 | 4 | 2/5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -17 |
And as the Mercury News' Tim Kawakami noted, the Jazz will need to get used to the Warriors' athleticism and their length on the perimeter following their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers:
If there was any solace for Utah, it came in the form of a 46-25 bench scoring advantage that was fueled by 12 points from Rodney Hood.
Moving forward, Utah will need that kind of production—and then some—in order to keep pace with the Warriors.
The Jazz will attempt to even the series at one game apiece Thursday night when Game 2 (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) gets underway from the Bay Area.
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