In the first game of the Western Conference Semi-Finals, the Golden State Warriors were able to take down the Utah Jazz by a score of 106-94.
The Jazz are no longer in Los Angeles, and it was easy to tell from the start of the game. The Warriors came out firing, taking an early 9-0 lead. Meanwhile, Utah started 0-6 from the field, with their first basket coming with 7:46 left in the quarter. The Warriors struggled to hit their threes, but they were still able to score. Stephen Curry led the way for Golden State with 12 points in the first quarter.
The Second quarter saw the Warriors jump out to a 12-4 run, pushing the Warriors lead to 14. Utah was unable to stop the Warriors offense as they hit eight of their first 11 shots. They ended up shooting over 55 percent from the field, compared to about 43 percent for the Jazz. Curry was dicing up the Jazz defense, helping the Warriors offense with Kevin Durant shooting just 5-12 from the field in the half.
Stephen Curry had Rudy Gobert chasing his tail ?
Yikes… pic.twitter.com/N18jl9S7Eu
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) May 3, 2017
The second half followed what happened in the first half. While the Jazz were able to cut the lead down to nine in the third quarter, the Warriors offense proved to be too much for Utah. What kept the Jazz in the game was their rebounding and Rodney Hood. Gordon Hayward had a rough game, and Hood was able to come in and score 10 points in the quarter for Utah. The Jazz were able to take the third quarter, but only by one point.
There wasn’t much to the fourth quarter. The Warriors came out firing, going on a 10-0 run that brought the lead to 21. In the first seven minutes of the quarter, the Jazz only hit two shots from the field. And that was the game.
Steph Curry paced the Warriors with 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and one steal on 7-11 shooting. Draymond Green had a great game for his squad, putting up 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals, and two blocks. Kevin Durant didn’t have a great game shooting but managed to score 17 points on 17 shots, and he added five rebounds, five assists, and one steal.
The Warriors were able to shut down Utah’s best offensive player for the night. Gordon Hayward struggled to find an open shot all game, which led to him scoring 12 points on 2-9 shooting. Hood ended the game with 12 points, and Joe Johnson chipped in 11 points. Rudy Gobert led the team in scoring with 13 points, and he grabbed eight rebounds, dished out three assists, blocked two shots, and had one steal. George Hill was also ineffective, scoring just seven points on nine shots.
One of the big differences in the game was free throws. The Warriors went 19-21 from the line, and the Jazz shot just 12 free throws, making nine of them. Another key difference was assists; Golden State had 32 assists on 40 made field goals.
The Jazz had an advantage in rebounds, grabbing seven more than the Warriors, but they also turned the ball over six more times than their opponent.
It’s going to be hard to beat the Warriors going forward for the Jazz. The scary part is how the Jazz seemed to not have a chance all game despite Durant struggling to shoot and the team as a whole shooting 24.1 percent from beyond the arc. If the Warriors want to get go to a city with better nightlife, they just need to start hitting from deep and they can move on to the next series.
Golden State has a chance to take a 2-0 lead on Utah on Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. at Oracle Arena.
