Warriors take 2-0 series lead on Blazers, win without Durant

The Golden State Warriors still use “strength in numbers” as a rallying cry, and if their marketing department wants to produce some kind of promotional video pertaining to the slogan, Wednesday’s 110-81 win against the Portland Trail Blazers would provide plenty of material.

The game was won on the Warriors’ defensive end, where the Trail Blazers were harassed into 33.3 percent shooting overall and a 7-for-34 night on 3-pointers.

Prior to his latest injury, Kevin Durant previously missed 19 regular season games due to a strained MCL and a bone bruise in his left leg.

-KERR: I don’t know about that but the one thing I would say is it’s probably helpful going into this game knowing what we did without him when he missed the six weeks.

“He was unbelievable all over the court for us (Wednesday)”, Warriors forward Draymond Green said. If there was a single shining star in this 29-point rout, it was backup center JaVale McGee.

To make certain he’s healthy, Golden State doesn’t need to risk playing him in the first round that they believed they could win handily without him.

The Trail Blazers wouldn’t go away quietly, however, and would get themselves back in the game with a strong start to the second quarter.

“They know that’s what our team is build on”, Kerr said of the Golden State defense.

“It changes everything, really”, coach Steve Kerr said in his pregame news conference.

According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, the Warriors are favored at home, as they are getting odds of -13.5 points against the Blazers.

In the fourth stanza, the Warriors increased their lead to more than 30 points in the fourth quarter and cruised to the win. But, the Warriors finished the half strong, stretching the lead back to nine as the Blazers failed to take further advantage, going 4-19 from downtown while Lillard and McCollum combined for just 17 points in the half.

McCaw attributed his and his teammates’ Game 2 success on Portland’s Damian Lillard and C.J.

In the first two games of the series, McGee has made 10 of 11 shots and has six blocks in just 23 minutes.

In their first game of the 2016 playoffs, the Warriors saw Steph Curry suffer a knee injury.

Obviously, not having starting center Jusuf Nurkic hurts in that regard, but no one else on Portland’s roster looked capable of making an impact.

“It’s like, you don’t realize how much time goes by since you’ve seen them last”.

Without him, the Warriors had their way in the paint. The Bay’s team was without several key players as KD, Shaun Livingston, and Matt Barnes all sat with injuries.

Check out Blazers vs Warriors half-time scores, live score updates and final score and result on Golden State Warriors Official twitter page.

Portland Trail Blazers: PG – Damian Lillard, SG – CJ McCollum, SF – Evan Turner, PF – Maurice Harkless, C – Noah Vonleh.

Without Kevin Durant on the floor, the Golden State Warriors hardly skipped a beat in Game 2 on Wednesday night.