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Green downs Jazz as Warriors take 2-0 lead

Draymond Green keyed an early surge as the Golden State Warriors defeated the Utah Jazz 115-104 yesterday morning (Singapore time) to take a 2-0 lead in their NBA Western Conference second-round play-off series.

Green drained five three-pointers en route to 21 points as the Warriors remained unbeaten in six games this post-season.

Kevin Durant added 25 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Stephen Curry had 23 points and seven assists for Golden State, who raced to an early lead and stifled Utah's attempts to come back.

Gordon Hayward shook off a slow start to score 33 points for Utah, who were without injured point guard George Hill.

Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz before fouling out in the waning seconds.

Throughout the contest, the Warriors had an answer for every threat from the Jazz - despite some sloppy defence and 17 turnovers that led to 22 Utah points.

"It wasn't easy," said Warriors coach Mike Brown - standing in for ailing head coach Steve Kerr.

"We felt it. We know we can play better.

"We broke down in a lot of areas where we should have been better.

"We did some nice things. We had 33 assists, we held them to five offensive rebounds."

In the other match yesterday morning, the Washington Wizards defeated the Boston Celtics 116-89 to trim their series deficit to 2-1.

Meanwhile, San Antonio Spurs announced on Thursday that their star Tony Parker will miss the remainder of the play-off season after suffering a leg injury during his team's win over the Houston Rockets.

- AFP

NBAGOLDEN STATE WARRIORSSan Antonio Spurs