Thunder Force Warriors into Unfamiliar Territory with Game 1 Win
The Oklahoma City Thunder put the Golden State Warriors on notice with a 108-102 Game 1 victory Monday—a loud, startling bulletin proclaiming the Western Conference Finals will be unlike any series the Dubs have yet played.
With a second-half defensive screw-turning nobody thought would carry over from their previous series, the Thunder limited Golden State to just 42 points in the final 24 minutes and 14 in the fourth quarter. Both were lows for the Warriors this postseason, per Warriors PR, and the lack of scoring made Russell Westbrook's surge in the third quarter (when he scored 19 of his game-high 27 points) stand out as the deciding factor.
After trailing by 13 at the break, the Thunder continued trusting their big lineups against the threat of the Warriors' small-ball units. They also switched aggressively on defense as the game wore on—to the point Golden State players eventually started screening their own men to free up teammates.
Yeah, adjustments happen at hyper speed in the Western Conference Finals.
The upshot was that possessions like this, from the Warriors' dominant first half, disappeared:
Oklahoma City made excellent changes in the second half, abandoning undersized units and utilizing Enes Kanter selectively to minimize his negative impact on defense. But Golden State was complicit in its own demise.
Stephen Curry turned the ball over seven times, and many of them were careless. Flailing-armed traps and extra bodies aren't new to the reigning two-time MVP, but he treated many of them as though they were. Some of Curry's giveaways were the result of wild flings into the waiting hands of those ambushes.
It's difficult to be too critical of Curry, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and this absolute dagger at the end of the first half—which, at the time, felt like a punched ticket to the NBA Finals.
Curry was far from perfect, though, and in addition to his mistakes, Klay Thompson forced a handful of quick shots after the break, muddling a brilliant first two quarters.
On balance, the Warriors played one very good half and one awful one. During the regular season, that would have been fine. During the first two rounds, it didn't hurt them because there was always that short burst—fueled by a Curry ignition or a defensive clamp down—that secured a victory.
Salvation in a three-minute spurt never came Monday, and though we could continue cataloguing Golden State's failures, it's probably better to credit OKC's successes for the absence of that run.
The Thunder proved their defensive leap in the last round wasn't exclusively the product of a stagnant, isolation-heavy San Antonio Spurs offense. As it turns out, Oklahoma City makes good offenses stagnate...or at least it has over the past few weeks. It's hard to know where this kind of commitment, effort and attention were during the regular season, but the Thunder have them now, and that's all that matters.
The result of that defensive prowess: OKC beat a 73-win team at home with Westbrook and Kevin Durant combining to shoot just 17-of-51 from the floor.
Shaun Livingston understands the challenge ahead, signaled by Game 1, per Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com:
The Thunder should feel terrific about the result. They can bank on Westbrook and Durant shooting more efficiently. They can be content knowing their big lineups are to be trusted. And they can marvel at Steven Adams' ongoing postseason breakout. He recorded 16 points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and a game-high plus-19 rating.
Not everything will work this well going forward, but the Thunder have already secured a road win and a series advantage. Whatever happens in Game 2, Oklahoma City has accomplished its mission in Oakland.
For their part, the Warriors shouldn't be panicking. They won more games than anyone in league history and (easily) survived two playoff series with their best player hobbled. In addition, they've trailed in series before—last year against the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers. During both instances, the Dubs made adjustments and prevailed handily.
Draymond Green remains confident, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:
There are key elements that make this situation unique, though: Golden State has already deployed a few odd tweaks. It started Green on Andre Roberson, it trimmed its rotation a bit and it worked doggedly to attack Kanter. Despite all that, the Warriors still lost.
Going forward, the Dubs must relentlessly push the tempo—not just for their own offense, but also to force the Thunder into more mistakes. OKC, trying to match Golden State's pace, turned the ball over 10 times in the first half.
But as the Thunder deliberately slowed things down, they gave the ball away just once after the break and kept the Dubs from getting out in transition, per Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders:
The trick for the Warriors will be to up the pace without kicking the ball around and taking bad shots. It's hard to wrangle chaos, but Golden State usually does it well. On Monday, according to head coach Steve Kerr's postgame comments, it lost that control:
Most of all, the Warriors must recognize a few critical distinctions between where they've been and where they now find themselves. This is not the regular season, and superior talent coupled with a timely scoring burst will not save them.
This is not an ordinary opponent. And though we had hints the Thunder would present problems for Golden State (see two fourth-quarter collapses that prevented Oklahoma City from taking two out of three from the Dubs during the regular season), it's now clear the Thunder cannot be beaten with anything less than maximum effort all the time.
This isn't to say Golden State is in mortal danger or that this series is anywhere close to decided.
But it is to say the Warriors now know they're in for the kind of fight they've never experienced.
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