There is a World Cup at stake, but if South Africa are under any extra pressure, it won't be coming from inside their camp. As his team departs for a tournament where - for once - they won't start as one of the favourites, captain Faf du Plessis is not demanding anything extraordinary from them.

Rather, he believes that a focus on enjoyment and on sticking to what has worked for them after a home summer during which they won 11 out of 13 one-day internationals and beat Australia 2-1 away, will provide a formula for success.

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"In previous World Cups, we wanted to do Superman things," du Plessis said on the eve of South Africa's departure for England and Wales. "We thought we had to be more special, we had to do something more than we usually do, and we did not do what was good enough. We haven't always got that right in the past, to play our best cricket at the World Cup, because we put so much pressure on ourselves. We want to just focus on enjoying our cricket."

Seven members of South Africa's squad, including du Plessis, were part of the 2015 World Cup campaign, when the side crashed out with a four-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the semi-finals. Du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir, JP Duminy and Dale Steyn were also part of South Africa's team at the 2011 tournament, when they came off second best in another high-pressure encounter with New Zealand.

"We believed you had to be really special to win the World Cup, that you had to do something more than you usually do, which is not true," du Plessis said of previous campaigns. "Whatever we've been doing consistently, the way we've played while beating teams that will work. We have to do the basics as well as possible, teams don't win the World Cup by someone scoring a century off 50 balls or taking 7 for 20."

Du Plessis is a thinking captain, but he is also a feeling one. Rather than shying away from the pressures that come with international competition, he has urged his team to grapple with them in positive ways - and he hasn't been afraid to talk openly about the mental aspect of South Africa's game in the media either.

"We started a year or two ago with a real focus on mental preparation and, as a captain, I probably speak more about that than previous captains, but I really believe it's an area we can get better in," du Plessis said. "I've been there and I know the pressures, I understand how to deal with them. There's a reason why we want the guys to play freely - because we don't want them to have a fear of failure, which is what the World Cup is for some of them. Our success in England over the next couple of months depends on how well we release that aspect of our play - we need that for the team to be at our best. Each player needs to find out his own strengths.

"The players relate better to fellow players and I'm on the same level as the coach when it comes to the importance of the mental side. I'm a big believer in positive visualisation, how to remain calm, and I feel it has had value for my own game. So I can relate that to the players, how important it is to be present in the moment; for instance when there's been a dropped catch, there's nothing you can do about it and it's about how you change your mindset to make sure you are still strong mentally."

Du Plessis' pragmatic approach will also be seen in South Africa's selections during the tournament. He suggested that playing XIs would be picked on primarily on form, though he was also quick to point out that a player such as Amla, whose form - or lack thereof - has a been a major talking point in the lead-up to the World Cup, brings invaluable experience to the squad whether or not he is making runs.

"In terms of team selection, that's a call we will make when we get to that first game," du Plessis said. "We have two warm-up games. Generally, we want to pick on form. If we believe Hash is the guy with the best form for the first game then he will be picked. But if we feel there are other guys that are more in form [we will pick them]. Form does play a huge role in a long competition like this - so hopefully Hash can go into those warm-ups, and bang, bang two centuries in a row and then we can smile from there."

At 36, and with 174 ODIs under his belt, Amla is one of the most experienced members of South Africa's squad. He has played 18 of those ODIs in England, averaging 56.73, and has been part of two previous World Cup campaigns.

"As an experienced player, he is important in our squad and that was one of the key reasons he was picked," du Plessis said. "You cannot substitute experience. When I speak about the experience, I speak about experience having played in tournaments like the World Cup before. He understands what it means to play in a big tournament.

"Whether that means runs or not, no one can give us that guarantee. But it's just the calm composure Hashim has. Even if he doesn't play a game, just the knowledge and experience that he can share with someone like an Aiden Markram is something you can only get from a guy like Hashim. He can talk him through those first 10 overs, he has a lot of experience playing county cricket, so his experience is vital to the group."

As Australia commenced their Men's World Cup preparations on English soil, coach Justin Langer admitted the personal welfare of Steven Smith and David Warner would require sensitive monitoring and handling over the coming months.

The two players joined in the centre wicket practice at Whitgift School, in the suburbs of south London, with a small media contingent and a few dozen fans, mainly children in whites, sat on the grassy banks. It was a quiet and even genteel start to a gruelling four-month tour that will incorporate World Cup and Ashes campaigns and Langer knows more hostile crowds and greater scrutiny will greet Smith and Warner now they have served the bans handed to them in the wake of last year's Cape Town ball tampering affair.

"Well we can't control the crowd," Langer said. "What I do know? It may ramp up, it may heat up, but it won't be any hotter than it was 12 months ago. I've never seen anything like it so the boys are very well prepared. They've paid a heavy price and we're expecting always to come here and to face the fire and we're ready for that.

"What we've got to understand is that they're human beings as well. There's not too many I've met in my life who like being booed or heckled or disliked so… they're human beings. We're going to have to care for them, we're going to have to put an arm around them and make sure they're going okay. But what people say, whether it's in the crowd or social media or wherever, there's nothing they can do about that, they can't control it but what we can do is keep an eye on them and make sure they're going okay as people as much as cricketers."

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Aside from the expected questions from the media there was little evidence of any lasting effects of a turbulent 12-month period, punctuated by severe recriminations and introspection throughout Australian professional cricket. But Langer suggested both players have shown an understandable eagerness to finally put their exile behind them, from their return to the squad for warm-ups against New Zealand to the squad's visit to the World War One battlefields of Gallipoli, where they broke their journey to England.

"Dave's got that look on his eye, he's really hungry, he's a great player as we all know, he's so dynamic, he brings so much energy, and that's what we ask from our players, Langer said. "You watch Glenn Maxwell field or bowl or bat - he brings the energy. Dave Warner always brings energy to the contest. It's really nice to have him back."

"I watched Steve Smith batting against new Zealand in those three practice games, he's literally a master of the game, so it's nice to have him back. It's been hilarious for me because whether on the ANZAC cove or in the lunch room or we're in the bus playing cards, he's just shadow batting the whole time. He's literally - he loves batting, he's shadow batting on the sand, he's shadow batting in the shower - I'm not joking. You should see him, he just loves batting. From that point it's great to have him back.

"From a broader perspective, it's nice to have them back as well, they've had 12 months to have a good think about a mistake they and the team made. I'm sure they'll be better people for that."

Aside from his surprising knowledge of Smith's daily ablutions, Langer believes both players are physically ready as they continue to progress from elbow surgeries earlier this year, although he admitted they are still at partially restricted in the field.

"They both fielded in the three [World Cup warm-up] games against New Zealand. Steve's in literally career best shape. I mean you just saw a 2K time trial, he's in great shape and Dave Warner is always elite fit. So in terms of their throwing, they're building it up. Where they've come from, from surgery, I'm really proud of them and they're up and running. Are they going to throw like Andrew Symonds or Ricky Ponting? Probably not at the moment but they're certainly working towards that.

"Last week in Brisbane, [Smith] batted beautifully, he played an unbelievable shot off Nathan Coulter-Nile there - it was like watching Sachin [Tendulkar] bat. He's in pretty good shape I think."

Of greater concern to Langer is the task of getting his side prepared for their first World Cup match against Afghanistan in Bristol, the reason for their match scenario practice, which saw bowlers asked to simulate specific stages of an innings. After a difficult home summer, Australia embarked on an eight-match winning streak in India and Pakistan and they now have two warm-up games in England to settle on a starting side. The main selection questions centre on how to fit Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja and Warner into the top three while Coulter-Nile appears to be favoured as the third seamer in an attack also featuring Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.

The coaching staff will be bolstered by World Cup winners Ponting and Brad Haddin and, while England's batting has dominated the local cricket headlines, Langer is adamant that Australia won't be drawn in to changing their tactics.

"We've been hearing it for 12 months. We've shown if we stick to the formula then we'll have some success. It's as simple as that. And when it comes to playing India and England it's just like match play, we're just going to have to compete harder and be ready for them. In terms of scores, a lot will have to do with the grounds we play on, the conditions, whether we're chasing or setting, all those sorts of things but we're really clear on the game plan. We showed in India and Dubai that, if we stick to it, we'll score big enough scores to win games of cricket.

"We love our cricket and we've been good at it. When everyone says we've got to start playing like England or start playing like New Zealand or start playing like India, no - we'll keep playing like Australia because we've won four of the past five World Cups and that's something to be proud of.

"The boys are aware of it and we know if we stick to the Australian way of playing great cricket… history has shown we'll be pretty good."

AB de Villiers has revealed that he urged current South Africa captain Faf du Plessis not to take up a second stint in county cricket after du Plessis' Kolpak contract with Lancashire expired in 2010.

In an interview with Indian YouTube channel Breakfast with Champions, de Villiers explained how he told du Plessis that he was "pretty close" to national selection at the time he was considering taking up a second deal in England.

"There was a moment when he was thinking of signing for one of the English counties," de Villiers said. "He did call me up, and said what do I think about it? I said listen, not a long time from now there will be a few retirements, a few guys will step down, and you're pretty close. And the coaches and the team are talking about you, so just hang in a little bit longer. And finally the breakthrough came. I'm not taking credit for that, but we did have that conversation. And I'm very happy I was straight up with him."

De Villiers and du Plessis had been childhood rivals, playing for different primary schools, but when they both attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool - also known as 'Affies' - in Pretoria as teenagers they became team-mates and friends. A prodigious talent, de Villiers made his Test debut against England in December 2004, before his 21st birthday. Du Plessis' call-up would only come almost seven years later, against India in 2011, after he had topped the domestic one-day run-charts.

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"He waited a bit longer," de Villiers said of du Plessis. "It happened quite quickly for me. A couple of doors opened up, and I put my hand up at the right time. The path he walked was a different one, but it set him up perfectly for international cricket. I think he was mentally in a great space when he finally made his debut."

De Villiers also opened up on his 2018 retirement, which came as a shock to many South African fans - especially as the World Cup was only a year away. De Villiers said that he wanted to play in the World Cup, but he cited a desire to spend more time with his family and a general weariness with international competition as reasons for his decision. He also said that he "felt cornered" by expectation and criticism, and hinted at other, "deeper reasons" for his departure.

"I was keen to play in the World Cup, but I left, I retired," he said. "So it was a very sensitive situation. For the last three years of my career, I was labelled as a guy who is picking and choosing when I was playing and when not. So I got quite a lot of criticism from back home, which also played a role in me retiring. And it was difficult for me to then go 'hey, but I'll still play the World Cup'. It's that picking and choosing thing again, and it's quite arrogant to do something like that. But as they say, you can't have your bread buttered on both sides.

"I felt cornered. It's always been about the team, it's never been about myself. But I found myself in a position where I had to make a decision where it's going to look like I'm just thinking about myself.

"There's a lot of reasons I had to move on. Family's definitely a big part of it. And the longevity of my career, I played for 15 years and I was just tired of the whole international scene. It's quite busy. Very stressful. And the mental game, the doubts you have as a person and as a player, it wears you down. And being captain of the Proteas for a long time also took its toll. And then there are a few deeper issues that might have to be discussed when I'm 50, one day.

"There's a part of me that will always miss it. Everything that goes with it. I wish I could have pushed on longer, but it was time. I had a great run. I had so much fun, I really did, and more dreams came true than I could ever imagine. And there was lots of heartbreaks as well along the way, and that's the great ride that we all go through."

San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski has broken Landon Donovan's all-time Major League Soccer goals record with the first two of four strikes against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

Wondolowski, 36, is now on 148 goals in 338 MLS appearances, while Donovan took 340 games to reach the previous record of 145.

His first goal goal came in the 21st minute when Cristian Espinoza delivered a long, cross-field pass to Shea Salinas on the left wing, and Salinas' low, driven cross was stabbed home by Wondolowski at the far post.

And Wondolowski set a new mark on 48 minutes when a seemingly innocuous cross from Nick Lima was floated into the box, but when Fire goalkeeper David Ousted fumbled the delivery, Wondolowski was there to pounce and side-foot it in.

He then added additional strikes in the 74th and 76th minutes to round out his historic afternoon.

Wondolowski started his career with the Earthquakes in 2005, but scored his first four goals for the Houston Dynamo, where he played from 2006-2009 after the franchise relocated.

MLS returned to San Jose in the 2009 season -- and so did Wondolowski, who had his breakout year in 2010, scoring 18 times in 28 appearances.

He had a record-tying year in 2012 when he scored 27 times to match Roy Lassiter's 1996 mark for most goals in a season. That mark was equaled by the New York Red Bulls' Bradley-Wright Phillips in 2014 before Atlanta's Josef Martinez surpassed the trio's mark in 2018.

Wondolowski also has 11 goals and 35 caps for the United States and was part of the squad that went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

Rounding out the top five leading scorers in MLS history after Wondolowski and Donovan are Jeff Cunningham with 134 goals, Jaime Moreno (133) and Ante Razov (114).

LONDON, England -- Pep Guardiola believes that Manchester City's domestic Treble was harder to achieve than winning the Champions League.

City wrapped up the final part of the Treble on Saturday with an emphatic 6-0 victory over Watford, just six days after pipping Liverpool to the Premier League title by a single point.

"It's one of the best seasons I've experienced as a manager, not the best but one of the best for sure," Guardiola said at a news conference. "To be for 10 months playing in all competitions. No team, including incredible teams in this country, have done this and we were the first.

"I love the Champions League, but to do [the Treble] is more difficult than to win the Champions League and we did it.

"It's not easy for 10 months, every three days being there because when you have one bad night you are out of competitions. And especially the way we played today we were a little bit short of energy but that's normal."

City were ruthless against Watford as they equalled the record FA Cup final winning margin set by Bury more than a century ago in 1903.

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Raheem Sterling scored twice and looked to have become the first player to score a hat trick in a final since 1953. But City's second from Gabriel Jesus crossed the line just millimetres before Sterling could claim the goal, although it wasn't officially given to the Brazilian until more than 30 minutes after full-time.

"I've disputed it!" Sterling said. "What can we do?

"The boys were brilliant today and my goals just added to the win. Everyone was fantastic.

"Credit to all the boys today. It's been a fantastic year."

Sterling, whose boyhood home was in view of the Wembley Arch, added: "Growing up here, growing up seeing this get built, it's a dream to be on this football field and winning trophies. It's a massive dream come true."

Teammate Bernardo Silva said that there will be no let-up next season and warned City's rivals that they can get even better.

"There's always space for improvement, and that's what we will try to do," he said.

"Next season we'll try to get better and we'll try to win even more titles, to be even better, to control more of the games, to have more possession, to create more chances to score more goals. We'll work on that.

"To win all the massive competitions, first time any team has done it, it's amazing, what a team this is. The fans were amazing this season as well, they pushed us this far.

"Now it's time to rest and time to celebrate. Next season we will try again."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An attorney preparing a lawsuit against Ohio State University on behalf of more than 50 former athletes who allege they were sexually abused by a team physician told The Associated Press on Saturday that most of his clients were football players from the Buckeyes' storied program, including some who went on to play in the NFL.

Dayton attorney Michael Wright said the abuse happened during required physical examinations at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and during treatment for injuries and ailments at Dr. Richard Strauss' off-campus clinic and at his home, where he insisted they be seen.

Strauss killed himself in 2005, nearly a decade after he was allowed to retire with honors.

A 232-page investigative report released Friday found that Strauss had sexually abused at least 177 male students, but the report made only one specific reference to football players while listing how many athletes from each team were abused. That list says three football players were interviewed.

Wright said he was not aware that any of his clients were interviewed by investigators from the Seattle-based Perkins Coie law firm.

An Ohio State spokesman declined to comment.

Investigators found that Strauss' abuse went on from 1979-1997 and took place at various locations across campus, including examining rooms, locker rooms, showers and saunas. Strauss contrived, among other things, to get young men to strip naked, and he groped them sexually.

The report concluded that scores of Ohio State personnel knew of complaints and concerns about Strauss' conduct as early as 1979 but failed for years to investigate or take meaningful action.

"It was known he was seeing these athletes and there were issues," Wright said.

Wright said he plans to file the lawsuit late next week and, for now, that his clients prefer to remain anonymous.

"Clearly they had good relationships with the university, and they believe the university will either retaliate or significantly distance themselves from these athletes," Wright said.

Some of Strauss' victims remain angry in the aftermath of the report's release about how Ohio State has treated them in the decades after he ogled and groped them during physical examinations and medical treatment.

Former nursing student Brian Garrett said he worked for a short time at an off-campus clinic Strauss opened after he was ousted at Ohio State in the late 1990s. But Garrett quit after witnessing abuse by Strauss and then experiencing it himself.

The investigation, he said, left him angrier than before.

"We knew that it was systemic and it had been reported," Garrett said Friday. "It's even more widespread than we knew."

Garrett thinks the abuse carried out by Strauss across more than a dozen sports and at numerous locations even surpasses that of Larry Nassar, of Michigan State University, who was accused of molesting at least 250 women and girls and is serving what amounts to a life sentence.

"We did not get to put him on trial. The police did not get to investigate. That's why it's worse than the MSU case," Garrett said. "He took the easy way out."

No one has publicly defended Strauss, although family members have said they were shocked by the allegations.

The whistleblower credited with prompting the investigation said in a statement he feels "vindicated" but has mixed feelings about the law firm's findings.

Mike DiSabato, a former Ohio State wrestler, met with school officials in March 2018 to discuss the abuse that he and other athletes had suffered at the hands of Strauss, prompting the school to hire Perkins Coie to conduct an investigation.

"Although a weight has been lifted off my back, I am deeply saddened to hear and relive the stories of so many others who suffered similar abuse by Dr. Strauss while Ohio State turned a blind eye," DiSabato's statement said.

He says the Perkins Coie report gives him "courage and strength to keep fighting to ensure Ohio State is held accountable for the damage and trauma they caused me and my family."

Ohio State president Michael Drake said there was a "consistent institutional failure" at the school, the nation's third-largest university. He apologized and commended victims for their courage.

The lawsuits against Ohio State are headed for mediation. They seek unspecified damages. Drake said the investigation alone has cost the school $6.2 million.

Separately, the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is examining whether Ohio State responded promptly and fairly to students' complaints. The department could cut the university's federal funding if it is found to have violated civil rights protections.

MILWAUKEE -- Raptors center Marc Gasol claimed responsibility for his team's poor performance in its 125-103 loss Friday to the Bucks in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

"The beginning [of the game] set us in a really bad spot," Gasol said. "We couldn't get a grip of the game early on, and I take full responsibility for that."

With the loss, the Raptors now trail the Bucks 2-0 as the series moves to Toronto for Game 3 on Sunday.

After being nipped by Milwaukee in the closing minutes of Game 1 on Wednesday night, the Raptors sputtered out of the gate in Game 2. They trailed 9-0 after three minutes of action, during which Gasol missed three shots, including a layup attempt swatted away at point-blank range by Bucks center Brook Lopez.

"I played really bad, and that set the tone," Gasol said.

Gasol finished with two points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field and is 3-for-20 over the first two games of the series. On Friday, he logged 19 minutes -- only five in the second half -- as Raptors coach Nick Nurse opted to play Serge Ibaka for much of the second half.

"I feel bad for him," Nurse said of Gasol. "Most of those went in and out. It's like, he's a really good player, a really good scorer. He was taking good shots and just couldn't buy one."

Gasol, who was crucial to containing Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid in the previous series, was hardly the sole or decisive factor in the Raptors' blowout loss Friday. Toronto, which ranks second among playoff teams in defensive efficiency in the postseason, allowed Milwaukee to score 50 points in the paint and 28 in transition in Game 2.

"We've got to play better defense," Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said. "We gave up 125 points. That's too many points in the playoffs."

The Raptors continued to struggle finding high-percentage shots against the Bucks' long, athletic defense. For the second consecutive game, the Raptors attempted far fewer field goals at the rim than from midrange and struggled from the 3-point line.

Toronto is underperforming on its selection of uncontested shots. After draining only 10 of 23 open field goal attempts in Game 1, Toronto converted only 7 of 18 uncontested looks at the basket in Game 2, continuing a trend that has persisted since the Raptors' conference semifinals series against Philadelphia.

"I sound like a broken record up here, but we had our share of wide-open shots that could have at least stymied a little bit of the breakout in the score," Nurse said.

The Raptors now will have the opportunity to even the series with the next two contests on their home floor, where they are 5-2 during the postseason.

"If we want to do anything or be a championship team, we gotta play through adversity," Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard said. "And it's a challenge now, to come home, Game 3, and try to get a win."

TORONTO -- After dropping the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals, the Toronto Raptors returned home knowing the odds -- at least historically -- are against them in their matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks.

But when told that 94 percent of the teams with 2-0 leads have gone on to win a best-of-seven series, Raptors coach Nick Nurse was defiant in his belief that Toronto still has what it takes to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

"That can't be right," Nurse said, drawing laughs. "That can't be right. Check the figures.

"I don't know. How do I find the solace [in that]? I find the solace when OKC got beat by 34 and 24 and went down 2-0 and then won four straight against a great, great, great, great San Antonio team. I don't know.

"I don't really give a crap about that. I just want our team to come play their ass off [Sunday night] and get one game and it changes the series."

The numbers are as bad as they were presented to Nurse: Teams are 51-5 (91.1 percent) when taking a 2-0 lead in the conference finals, and 287-20 (93.5 percent) overall when taking such a lead in a playoff series.

In order to overcome those odds and do what the Thunder did in 2012 -- when OKC won Games 3-6 and advanced to the NBA Finals -- the Raptors will have to be better than they were in Game 2, when the Bucks led wire-to-wire and stormed to a comprehensive victory.

After Marc Gasol struggled in Game 2, scoring two points on 1-for-9 shooting in 19 minutes, Nurse was asked about the possibility of making a lineup change. He said that, in fact, he could make multiple -- perhaps a sign that, in addition to replacing Gasol with Serge Ibaka, he's considering benching Danny Green, who struggled for a third straight game, in favor of Norman Powell, who scored 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting in Game 2.

Nurse admitted, however, that deciding to make such a move is hard for a variety of reasons beyond fit against a specific opponent.

"I think your question here is this: 'Are you gonna dance with the one you brung to the ball?'" Nurse asked. "It's not easy. You think certain series aren't for certain guys, et cetera, but I also think that we've gotten, we've had bad biorhythms a couple times, maybe three or four times in the playoffs, and then the next game our biorhythms were back intact.

"So I kinda trust these guys, know who they are, believe in 'em, and know they're better than they played last night and have shown that on bounce-back situations usually."

The margin for error, though, is now all but gone. Toronto had its chance to steal homecourt in Game 1, when it led for most of the first three quarters before being outscored 32-17 in the fourth to let a game both sides would admit the Raptors should've won slip away.

Part of the calculation for Nurse will come with deciding whether Gasol or Ibaka will give him the best chance to chase Brook Lopez, Milwaukee's mountain of a starting center, out of the lane. Nurse made a point of noting that, in his mind, Lopez is committing three-second violations repeatedly throughout the game.

"Yeah, I mean, they're loading a lot, and Lopez never leaves the lane," Nurse said. "I think I counted 15 illegal defenses on the film, but I ain't gonna count that.

"Your big has to be able to make 'em pay from the perimeter. You need a spacing big that can hit, or get to the next action because he's in the paint."

Down 2-0 in the NBA Western Conference finals, the Portland Trail Blazers find themselves in a must-win predicament on their home floor Saturday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

One big reason the Golden State Warriors are in the driver's seat: their ability to shut down Damian Lillard, who must get going if Portland has a chance to turn this series around.

Here's how Golden State has contained Dame, and some things the Blazers can do to try to counter.

Lillard not getting his shots

Lillard is a terrific scorer who averaged nearly 26 points per game this season by blending 3-point scoring, midrange shooting and rim attacks.

But in the first two games of this series, the Warriors have reduced Lillard to a medium-usage, low-efficiency perimeter scorer. They've prevented him from doing any damage inside the 3-point line.

Lillard's shot distribution in the first two games should worry the Blazers. He has only one made shot in the paint and three total buckets in the 2-point area. He has taken nine shots from beyond 30 feet, and has taken a total of four inside 10 feet.

During the regular season, Lillard's average shot quality on 3-point attempts -- factoring in shot type, location and defender distance -- rated as a not-great 47.5 expected effective field goal percentage (eFG), according to Second Spectrum tracking. Because Lillard is money from long range, even when contested, he cashed in with an actual eFG of 55.6.

But the Warriors might be forcing Dame to a breaking point. His shot quality is down to a 42.5 expected eFG on 17 3s in this series, per Second Spectrum. The average shot distance on his 3s is 29.1 feet away from the rim. Somehow he's still shooting 41.2 percent overall on those looks, but that's not sustainable and it's affecting the rest of his game.

Lillard's inability to produce anything near the basket is particularly disappointing. Consider these two stats:

• In the regular season, Lillard averaged over 11 points per game on 2-pointers. In the first two games of this series, he has scored just six total points on 2s.

• Lillard averaged 6.5 shots per game within 8 feet of the basket in the regular season. In this series, he has tried just three total in that zone.

So how are the Warriors pulling this off?

The Warriors' plan to take out Dame

Give credit here to Golden State's defense, which remains the most unheralded part of this dynastic run. The Warriors have always combined smart tactics with fantastic individual defenders to generate great defensive results. This series is no exception. The Dubs have built a game plan designed to suppress Lillard's scoring activity and dare other Blazers to beat them.

Klay Thompson has done the lion's share of defensive work on Lillard, and Thompson has been superb. In the regular season, Lillard shot 27.9 times and scored 34.5 points per 100 possessions. But in the 66 matchups against Thompson this series, Lillard is shooting at a rate of 18.2 times per 100 and yielding just 12.1 points. In Game 1, Dame had the fewest shot attempts of his 49-game playoff career (12). His 16 attempts in Game 2 were still well below his career average of 19.9.

The Warriors are leaving Lillard with few good options, squashing the Blazers star at the point of attack. After blitzing pick-and-rolls just four times per game in the first two rounds of these playoffs, they're doing so 18 times per game in this series, per Second Spectrum. Rarely does Lillard call for a pick without two Golden State defenders absolutely swarming him.

In Game 2, Golden State blitzed Lillard 19 times. That isn't just the most blitzes Lillard has faced in a postseason game in his entire career -- it's the most any player has faced this postseason.

Sometimes Lillard has been able to split that blitz and get to the rim, but moves like this become challenging to execute on every possession when you've played 326 total minutes this month and nine playoff games in 18 days:

The Warriors' defense is famous for being able to switch anything, but Golden State can also adjust to the matchup.

What else can Lillard try?

Lillard is mostly making the right play on these blitzes. He's finding the big -- typically Enes Kanter -- on short rolls, but Kanter is no Magic Johnson. He's kind of a dead end on these plays.

With that in mind, Portland should try something else. Some potential alternatives:

• Set screens with playmakers. In the second half of Game 2, Portland started using Evan Turner as a screener, making him the receiver of the passes out of the blitzes. Turner is much more adept at making plays than, say, Meyers Leonard, Zach Collins or Kanter. Portland used the Lillard-Turner pick-and-roll eight times in the second half of Game 2, while using it just five times total in all previous playoff games. Expect more of that in Game 3.

• Get rid of the ball faster. The best way to punish teams for blitzing is to move the ball as soon as the defenders try to converge. Both Lillard and CJ McCollum need to initiate the punishment as fast as possible when Golden State blitzes.

Dethroning the champs is no easy task, and this Warriors team is tough to beat on both ends of the court.

Though the Warriors will rightly go down in history as an offensive juggernaut, more folks should celebrate this defense. Thompson still has yet to make an all-defense team, which is nothing short of a travesty. He is a world-class wing defender who has consistently shown up for big games. If the Blazers are going to win Game 3, they'll need to find someone to pick on other than Klay.