NBA Playoffs
Western Conference – Round 2
Tip-off: Tuesday, 10:35 p.m. ET
Line: Golden State -10.0, Total: 214.0

The Warriors will be looking to take a 2-0 series lead when they host the Blazers in Game 2 on Tuesday.

Golden State has looked dominant throughout the postseason and the team hasn’t even been playing at full strength. The Warriors hosted the Blazers in Game 1 of this series and won 118-106 as 9.5-point favorites. Golden State has now won-and-covered in seven of its past eight games and five of those contests were in the postseason. The Warriors have also shot 45.0% or better from the field in nine of their past 13 games. They are going to be unbeatable if they continue to shoot the ball this well moving forward. One thing that does favor the Blazers is the fact that they are 17-8 ATS after allowing 110 points or more this season. The Warriors, however, are 35-16 ATS after two straight wins by 10 or more over the past two seasons. They are also 14-4 ATS in home games after covering in six or seven of their past eight games over the past three seasons. C Meyers Leonard (Shoulder) is out for the season for Portland and PG Stephen Curry (Knee) remains out for Golden State.

The Blazers are a far inferior team in comparison to the Warriors, so they’ll need some outstanding performances from PG Damian Lillard (23.1 PPG, 5.1 APG, 1.4 SPG in playoffs) and SG C.J. McCollum (18.6 PPG in playoffs) in order to steal a win in Game 2 of this series. Lillard had 30 points in Game 1 on Sunday, but he was just 8-for-26 from the field and he’ll need to be a lot more efficient moving forward. The Warriors are currently playing without Stephen Curry, so Lillard should have more energy in this series. He doesn’t have to deal with chasing Curry around the floor and that should be big for Portland. Lillard must take some better shots in Tuesday’s game. McCollum is also going to need to be a lot better and that’s the case on both ends of the floor. He did not play well defensively against Klay Thompson on Sunday and also went just 5-for-17 from the floor and 0-for-4 from the outside offensively. McCollum can’t shoot that poorly in this series, as he’s going to be relied on to step up and support Lillard. He’d be wise to get some good looks from inside the paint on Tuesday.

The Warriors are playing without Curry and the team still looks like it is an unstoppable force. The main reason for that has been the play of both SG Klay Thompson (25.7 PPG, 1.5 SPG in playoffs) and PF Draymond Green (14.8 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 7.3 APG, 1.7 BPG, 1.3 SPG in playoffs). Thompson has had no problem taking over as this team’s top scorer in Curry’s absence. He had 37 points on 14-for-28 shooting in Game 1 and he’ll need to continue to let it fly until Curry is back. Thompson has a major height advantage over McCollum and that’s going to allow him to keep getting good looks at the rim in this series. Green, meanwhile, has been doing it all for the Warriors. He had 23 points, 13 boards and 11 assists in Game 1 and Golden State just needs him to continue to play his heart out in this series. PG Shaun Livingston (13.0 PPG, 5.0 APG, 1.0 SPG in playoffs) is another guy worth mentioning. He had 12 points and six assists in Game 1 and has been doing a great job of running this offense. His size is a major problem for the Blazers’ guards, as he is a very good scorer in the post. Livingston must continue to take his patented turnaround jumpers to keep the defense honest moving forward.