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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2019)
SPORTS Saturday, May 18, 2019 East Oregonian B3 Blazers head home for Game 3, down 2-0 to Golden State By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press PORTLAND — Damian Lillard says Golden State did its job and protected home court. Now it’s time for the Trail Blazers to do the same. The Western Conference fi nals between the upstart Blazers and the defending champion Warriors shifts to Portland on Saturday with Golden State holding a 2-0 advantage. The Blazers were up 15 points at the half and led by eight with 4½ min- utes left before the War- riors rallied — boosted by Kevon Looney’s dunk with less than a minute left, and a game-sealing steal from Andre Iguodala — for a 114-111 victory in Game 2 on Thursday night. Golden State capped the game with a 14-3 run to avoid falling into a tie in the best-of-seven series. “Lost the game, but you know, their job was to take care of their home fl oor, and we’ve got an opportunity to do the same thing,” Lillard said. Lillard, who grew up just a few miles from Ora- cle Arena, fi nished with 23 points and 10 assists, but was thwarted by Golden State’s defense, including Iguodala’s at the end. CJ McCollum had 22 points in Portland’s eighth straight NBA PLAYOFFS Golden State Warriors Portland Trailblazers Western Conference Finals, Game 3: 6 p.m. Saturday at Moda Center in Portland T.V.: ESPN AP Photo/Jeff Chiu Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, left, is defended by Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson during the fi rst half of Game 2 of the NBA basketball playoff s Western Con- ference fi nals in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday. playoff loss to the Warriors since 2016. “We’ve got to bring that same energy at home, understand that this is the fi rst time in 19 years we’ve been in the conference fi nal,” McCollum said. “I know they (the fans) will be excited and I’m really look- ing forward to the oppor- tunity playing at home and building on what we’ve done. “Being down 0-2, it’s not what you would like to see but it’s our reality, so now we got to go get some at home.” Stephen Curry led Golden State with 37 points. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said experience pushed Golden State at the end after Portland’s dom- inant play for most of the game. “We’ve done this a few times, and yeah, we stole it for sure,” Kerr said. Golden State, vying for a fi fth straight trip to the NBA Finals, won the open- ing game against the Blaz- ers 116-94, with Curry scoring 36 points to lead the way. The series so far, and particularly Game 2, has been an entertaining bat- tle between Curry and his younger brother Seth, who plays for the Blazers. It is the fi rst time that brothers have played each other in a conference fi nal. The younger Curry had 16 points and four steals off the bench on Thurs- day, including a steal on his brother. Seth Curry even engaged in a little trash talk when his brother was at the free throw line as the game wound down. “This was like the cool- est experience I think I’ve ever had playing against him. We talked about the stage and he was amazing tonight,” Steph Curry said. “You know, every min- ute he was out there defen- sively, he was a pest. Made three big shots the fourth quarter that were very timely.” He added with a smile that it must have been nerve-wracking for his par- ents, “but it worked out per- fectly tonight: He played well and we won.” Game 3 will be the fi rst conference fi nal game in Portland since 2000. The Blazers lost that series to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. “I know they are going to be excited,” Stephen Curry said in noting the atmo- sphere at the Moda Center. “We’ve got to do whatever we can to hopefully take them out of it early. Know- ing Portland is going to feed off that energy, it’s going to be tough to win up there, so we got to bring it.” Back at home, the Blaz- ers won’t need to deal with the return of Kevin Durant. The two-time reigning NBA Finals MVP is still out with a right calf injury and isn’t set to be reexam- ined until next week, mean- ing it’s likely he’ll miss the rest of this series. Durant, who won’t travel with the team to Portland, averaged 34.2 points in the playoffs before he was injured in the third quarter of Golden State’s Game 5 victory over Houston. The third-seeded Blaz- ers bested Oklahoma City 4-1 in the opening round, then needed all seven games to get past the Den- ver Nuggets in the semifi - nals. The Warriors downed both the Los Angeles Clip- pers and the Houston Rock- ets in six games to get to the conference fi nals. The winner in the West will go on to face the winner of the East series between the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks. Tony Hawk starts gig as commentator for Vans Park Series By BERNIE WILSON Associated Press SAN DIEGO — One of the fi rst things Tony Hawk was looking forward to doing when he arrived in Shanghai for his debut as commentator for the Vans Park Series was to grab a skateboard and do some prep work. “Skating the courses and connecting with the com- petitors directly in order to have better insight when the competition actually starts,” Hawk said in an email exchange. He’ll be at the microphone when Vans Park Series starts its fourth year of com- petition this weekend, show- casing the world’s best park terrain skateboarders a year before the sport makes its Olympic debut. Hawk will join co-host Chris Cote for the fi ve competitions, which continue in Sao Paulo, Bra- zil June 22-23; Montreal July 12-13; Paris Aug. 9-10 and the men’s and women’s championships in Salt Lake City Sept. 6-7. “It’s fun for me as a fan of skating to share my exper- tise with a larger audience, and give the casual viewer a better understanding in the nuances of skating,” he said. Hawk said Vans events are “authentic and raw. We have seen some of the most progressive and evo- lutionary tricks and tech- niques occur during all the excitement, especially in the fi nals. And having pay equality for prize money is hugely important in validat- ing women skaters that have been slighted for far too long in other events.” Park terrain, he added, is “a hybrid of pool, vert and mini-ramp skating, with occasional ‘street’ elements added to the course. Focus- ing on only one of those disciplines will not ben- efi t a competitor, so it is more likely that someone who grew up riding various skateparks will excel.” With an international roster of skateboarding’s top pros, Vans Park Series awards a total series purse of more than $700,000 and has prize parity for men and women. We are Banner Bank. We’re a lot like yog. We are farmers, ranchers, bakers, gardeners, grandparents, 4H, FFA, softball, and baseball parents. We are stewards of ogr local commgnities, helping to make them better places to work and live. We are involved in local organizations, both individgally and as a bank. We’re progd to call this place ogr home, and are here to serve yog. Let’s create tomorrow, together. Progdly serving Eastern Oregon since 1948 bannerbank.com Member FDIC
