The Golden State Warriors proved they can win even without being at full strength by sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
Stephen Curry is not perfect. He said it himself after his Golden State Warriors won Game 4 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, completing a four-game sweep of the Blazers.
Curry told reporters after the game that he is “not flawless with it,” although the city of Portland could be forgiven for thinking he and the Warriors were pretty much flawless in the first round.
The tone was set in Game 1, when C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard combined to score 75 points on 54 shots.
The Blazers lost that game by 12 points. Lillard and McCollum gave it their all throughout the series, but as in Game 1, it never mattered all that much. The Warriors peak higher than the Blazers and without a healthy Jusuf Nurkic, the odds were always stacked against Portland.
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Even if Golden State won somewhat easily over the Blazers, there are still lessons to be learned from the Warriors about how their first round went. It wasn’t without drama, even if the Trail Blazers weren’t able to pull out any wins over the Dubs.
To that end, let’s examine five of the biggest takeaways from the Golden State Warriors first four games of the 2017 NBA Playoffs, and see what can be learned about the Dubs from their sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers.