NBA Playoffs: Durant drops 38 to help Warriors to a 3-0 lead over Jazz
The Golden State Warriors are a win away from the Western Conference Finals after outlasting the Utah Jazz in the NBA playoffs.
Golden State earned a commanding 3-0 series lead thanks to Saturday’s 102-91 game-three victory.
The Jazz did everything they wanted to do. They slowed the game down, they got Draymond Green in foul trouble and they got in his head, and they forced the Warriors into a bad shooting night.
But what they could not do was stop Kevin Durant. The 28-year-old scored 38 points on 15-of-26 shooting and added 13 rebounds as well.
He had 22 points in the first half when Green (nine points, 10 rebounds), Steph Curry (23 points) and Klay Thompson (six points) combined for a total of 13 points on their own.
Kevin. Durant. #DubNation#NBAonABC pic.twitter.com/CQjlCkQxOE
— NBA (@NBA) May 7, 2017
The Jazz dirtied up the game like they wanted to, forcing Green into a technical foul in the first half which ignited a 17-4 run in favour of Utah. It allowed the Jazz to take a lead into half-time and gave them as much as a nine-point lead in the third quarter.
Gordon Hayward found his way in the second half while Rudy Gobert roughed up the smaller Warriors on the inside game all night long. But while the two of them were good, they could never match Durant or stop him at the other end.
Between Hayward (29 points) and Gobert (21 points, 15 rebounds), the Jazz got 50 points and 17 rebounds, but from the rest of the team they got a total of 41 points in the game and shot 16-of-51 from the floor.
Game 5 will be played in Salt Lake City on Monday.
