Warriors waiting in the wings

After sweeping Utah, Curry and crew set to face winner of RocketsSpurs

SALT LAKE CITY - After getting off to a fast start, the Golden State Warriors put a quick finish to the Utah Jazz in their NBA Western Conference semifinal on Monday night.

With the series sweep, the Warriors are now four wins from another NBA Finals - and so far nobody can slow them down.

"We have a lot of talent," said Stephen Curry, who drained 30 points in Golden State's 121-95 triumph in Game 4.

"We never know who is going to have a hot night.

"We try to move the ball, use each other to create open shots. When we do that, the ball is hopping and a lot of good things happen."

The defending Western Conference champions have swept both their series this spring and now await the winner of the Rockets-Spurs semifinal, which is tied at 2-2.

The Warriors kept pace with defending champion Cleveland in what is shaping up as a third straight NBA Finals matchup. Both teams are 8-0 thus far.

"Steph was Steph and we fed off him," said Warriors interim head coach Mike Brown.

Brown said before the game he hoped his team would get out to a fast start, and the Warriors did exactly that.

Golden State led 39-17 at the end of the first quarter after an onslaught from Klay Thompson and Curry, who combined to shoot 6 for 8 in the opening 12 minutes.

Thompson finished with 21, Kevin Durant scored 18 and Draymond Green posted his third career playoff triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.

Gordon Hayward led the Jazz with 25 points and Shelvin Mack chipped in 18.

"The most important thing was we imposed our will on the game and we played it at our pace," Green said.

Curry entered the game averaging 26.7 points in the playoffs, but Thompson had been struggling against the Jazz.

He rebounded from a six-point effort in Game 3 with back-to-back jumpers out the gate. Curry then drained consecutive 3s and the rout was on.

The Jazz started 3 for 16 from the field as Golden State hit from all areas en route to shooting 57.1 percent in the first quarter.

Curry picked up right where he left off after an 11-point fourth quarter in Game 3 with a 14-point first quarter and combined with Thompson and Green for 29 points in the period.

The Jazz used a 14-0 run early in the second quarter, sparked by the suddenly active Dante Exum and Derrick Favors, to cut the lead to 10 points.

Utah closed the half with a 12-2 run to trail 60-52 at halftime, but every time the Jazz made a significant run the rest of the way, the Warriors answered and pushed the lead back to double digits.

Utah's postseason ended a four-year playoff drought. Hayward developed into an All-Star and Rudy Gobert became a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

The addition of George Hill, Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw to the corps of Hayward, Gobert, Favors, Hood and Joe Ingles produced Utah's first second-round appearance since 2010.

"It's been a unique arc for us," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.

"The adversity that kind of continued to rear its head, and the way these guys dealt with it. It was apropos tonight. What happened, happened. We simply got blitzed."

Associated Press