Warriors Still Have Plenty to Prove Despite Season-Saving Effort vs. Thunder

The Golden State Warriors were good enough when they needed to be, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-111 Thursday to stave off elimination in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

Despite the season-saving result, the Warriors' chances of toppling the Thunder twice more seem slim. Fueled by the desperation of must-win stakes, the Dubs still only mustered occasional flashes of their dominant 73-win selves. There were positives to build on, but it's difficult to say the Warriors' win tipped the balance of power away from Oklahoma City.

Chief among the encouraging signs was the return of Golden State's defensive intensity.

After hemorrhaging points all series (and particularly in Games 3 and 4), the Warriors shored up their interior fortifications. Andrew Bogut showed up big in the box score, logging a postseason-high 15 points and 14 rebounds, but his activity and intimidation as a rim protector were even more valuable, as this tidbit from ESPN Stats & Info illustrates:

After averaging 55 points in the paint during Games 3 and 4, the Thunder managed just 30 Thursday. Turning away from their vaunted small-ball units more than ever, the Dubs also had success scoring inside against OKC, amassing 48 of their own paint points.

Among the many remarkable Thunder achievements in this series, forcing the Warriors to mostly abandon the Death Lineup that so thoroughly wiped out the league this year stands as the biggest. It seems the Warriors now understand downsizing is far from a sure path to success. Staying bigger and giving more minutes to Bogut (especially if he manages to play like this again) looks like the best way forward.

Golden State seems to know that now.

In addition, Draymond Green steadied himself after two brutal contests. His activity spiked, his defense picked up and his intensity found more productive outlets than at any previous point in the series. Backed into a corner because of poor performances and perhaps too much extracurricular attention, Green fell back on a wise last resort, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com:

He also found cause to celebrate a little—something he had few occasions to do over the past week or so.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

He finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and four blocks—one of which triggered a sequence that looked like it was pulled from the Warriors' regular-season highlight reel:

Stephen Curry, who finished the previous play, felt out the early parts of the game. Eventually, he found ways to get to the bucket when bigger defenders switched out onto him, something he couldn't do earlier in the series.

Still a micro-step slow overall, Curry at least unsealed small doses of his trademark transcendence. His night concluded with 31 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals.

In the lead-up to Thursday's pivotal contest, it was popular to say the Warriors' fate depended on Curry being the best player on the floor. He was...but just barely, and not in a start-to-finish way that suggests he has this thing figured out for good.

If he's darting past defenders and canning triples (he only hit three of his eight attempts Thursday) when Game 6 rolls around, the Warriors will be in business. But we haven't seen Curry string together long stretches of brilliance since his MCL sprain in the first round.

He's still confident, though. And with enough short bursts like this, maybe he'll break through and find a way to make the MVP form stick:

Oklahoma City got a combined 71 points from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, but neither shot the ball efficiently, and Westbrook committed seven turnovers. Worse still for OKC, Steven Adams, who's been pivotal all series, missed critical stretches of the first half after picking up two early fouls.

That the Thunder actually led in the second half and wound up losing by single digits, despite substandard performances from their three most important players, limits the overflow of Warriors optimism. Yes, in the same way we've had to credit Oklahoma City for Golden State's previous struggles, we must also acknowledge the Warriors' influence on the Thunder's losing performance.

Golden State defended more attentively and purposefully in Game 5, and it affected OKC's best players.

But in a broader sense, the Thunder should feel good. Because Golden State is still searching for the flow and pace and confidence that defined it all year. There was defiance Thursday, and certainly desperation. Those'll do in a pinch. But it took clawing and scrapping to pull this one out.

At home.

With everything on the line.

The Warriors, despite winning, still didn't resemble the regular-season version of themselves. At least not for more than a few minutes at a time. Before the game, that still elusive rediscovery was in the front of head coach Steve Kerr's mind, per Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Warriors didn't quite find themselves Thursday, but they earned another chance to keep looking.

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