THE Portland Trail Blazers made a run late in the first half of Tuesday’s Western Conference finals opener, trimming a 10-point Golden State Warriors lead to 48-45, seemingly shifting the momentum of the game before halftime.

Stephen Curry had other ideas.

With just under 40 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Curry drained a 3-pointer to double the Golden State lead.

When Damian Lillard turned the ball over on the other end, Curry made the Blazers pay, sinking another 3-pointer to pump Golden State’s lead back up to nine in a sequence that would define Game 1.

From that moment, the Trail Blazers wouldn’t truly threaten the Warriors again as Curry led Golden State with a dominant performance in a 116-94 win to open the series.

Absent Kevin Durant, the Warriors once again leaned on their two-time MVP point guard to lead the way as Curry and Klay Thompson thoroughly outplayed Portland’s backcourt counterpart of Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Curry caught fire from distance, hitting 9-of-15 3-pointers while tallying 36 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds in a game he was able to comfortably watch the ending of from the bench.

Thompson, meanwhile, tallied 26 points in a game where Lillard and McColllum struggled to keep pace.

Billed as the marquee matchup of the series, Golden State reminded everyone that its backcourt duo is the best in the series and the best in the NBA.

Lillard struggled from the field, hitting 4-of-12 shots to total 19 points with 6 assists and 4 rebounds. He also turned the ball over seven times.

It’s the second straight game Portland’s best player had trouble finding the bottom of the net. He finished Sunday’s Game 7 win over the Denver Nuggets hitting 3-of-17 field goal attempts. But in that game, McCollum bailed him out with a brilliant 37-point performance to sink the Nuggets.

There were no McCollum heroics Tuesday as Portland’s second option hit 7-of-19 shots en route to 17 points while hitting just 1-of-5 3-point attempts.

While Curry and Thompson appeared to score at will, the Warriors continually made life hard on the Trail Blazers. Portland turned the ball over 21 times and shot 36.8 percent from the field. The league’s most accurate 3-point shooting team in the regular season shot 7-of-28 (25 percent) from distance.

The Warriors, meanwhile, hit 50 percent of their field goals and were even better from distance. Curry regularly found himself open behind the arc and made Portland pay.  (SD-Agencies)