The Portland Trail Blazers arguably needed to do at least four things in order to beat the Golden State Warriors in any given game in the 2019 Western Conference Finals.
You’d figure that for Portland to win, they’d have to hope for Steph Curry to get in foul trouble, get a big game from C.J. McCollum, win the battle of the benches and not only win the rebounding battle but also turn their statistical advantage into second chance points.
Although Rodney Hood (17 points) did give the Blazers good minutes off the bench, none of those other things happened in Game 1.