Trail Blazers at Warriors
The Golden State Warriors posted the best record in the NBA for the third straight season and will begin their quest for a third straight trip to the NBA Finals when they host the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday in the opener of a first-round Western Conference playoff series. The Trail Blazers needed a surge over the final few weeks just to make the postseason field but enter the series with plenty of confidence.
Portland star point guard Damian Lillard averaged 29.4 points while leading the team to a 16-5 record over a 21-game span that vaulted the Trail Blazers past the Denver Nuggets and allowed them the clinch the No. 8 spot after game 80 of the regular season. "I was asked in six or seven (games), and I said six. It was a lighthearted exchange," Lillard told ESPN. "But with that said, I do believe we can win the series." The Warriors are plenty confident after getting Kevin Durant (knee) back in the lineup during the final week of the regular season, but they are saving room for respect as well. "We've got to go out there and play our game," Durant told reporters. "We can't expect to win because everybody else is expecting us to win, or (because) we had a better record, or what looks good on paper. We got to go out there and play. Everybody in here knows that. I don't think we even thought about us being on paper a better team."
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC
ABOUT THE TRAIL BLAZERS (41-41): While Lillard was the star of Portland's surge down the stretch, center Jusuf Nurkic was a key piece and helped jumpstart the team after being acquired from the Nuggets. Nurkic, who averaged 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds in 20 games with the team, sat out the final seven games with a nondisplaced fracture in his right leg, and his return for the postseason is undetermined, according to head coach Terry Stotts. "If it’s up to me, I play right now," Nurkic told reporters. "I do my part and I feel better. I make great progress the last couple of days but I’m not there yet, so we're still waiting on that right now. Undecided."
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (67-15): Durant averaged 29.3 points on 60 percent shooting in four games during the regular season against Portland - all Golden State wins. He also did not show any sign of being hampered by the knee injury while scoring 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, in the regular season finale against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors developed a solid chemistry prior to Durant's injury and are hoping to find that again in the playoffs while hanging onto the increased production that Stephen Curry enjoyed with his fellow former MVP sidelined.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Warriors knocked off the Trail Blazers in five games in the Western Conference semifinals last spring.
2. Golden State SF Matt Barnes (sprained right foot) is not expected to play on Sunday.
3. Portland SF Allen Crabbe (foot) sat out the final three games of the regular season but is probable for Game 1.