Thunder Didn't Give Away a Trip to the NBA Finals; Golden State Warriors Took It
The Golden State Warriors met the Oklahoma City Thunder's superior execution, strategy and all-around edge in earthly play with what felt like acts of God on Monday, securing a 96-88 win in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
Score one for divine intervention.
Golden State completed its improbable emergence from a 3-1 series hole (becoming just the 10th of 233 teams to pull off the feat), erasing yet another double-digit deficit with absurd shooting, ridiculous resolve and relentless confidence.
The victory swells Golden State's already enormous legend.
It was the Warriors' 17th win after trailing by double figures, and it came against a Thunder team that easily erased the squad many thought would trouble the Warriors most: the 67-win San Antonio Spurs.
To beat the Thunder in Monday's decisive contest, Golden State needed 36 points and a series of truly unstoppable offensive sequences from unanimous MVP Stephen Curry.
Curry was truly transcendent...and it has generally required transcendence to beat the Thunder.
In Game 6, the Warriors survived by the scorching-hot hand of Klay Thompson, who pumped in 41 points, setting an NBA record for made three-pointers in a postseason game with 11. There is no other team with two game-altering fireballers like Curry and Thompson. There never has been. Probably, there never will be.
If not for the truly unique shot-making of those two players—against dialed-in schemes, dogged coverage and incomparable Thunder length—Oklahoma City would be headed for the Finals.
It follows that this is where the "OKC choked" narratives must die.
The Thunder were better than the Warriors in virtually every facet of this series. Yes, OKC's three-point shooting went cold in Games 6 and 7; it missed 13 straight triples in one span, a cold streak that lasted more than two quarters.
But their effort never wavered, and their defensive intensity held strong until Golden State's silly sniping wore away that resolve, per Matt Moore of CBSSports.com:
Game 7 was a microcosm of the series. The Thunder secured more rebounds than Golden State, tallied an equal number of assists, turned the ball over less frequently, got to the foul line more and shot a better percentage from two-point range. For the vast majority of this contest and the seven-game engagement, Oklahoma City out-hustled, out-executed and outplayed the 73-win Warriors.
But Golden State shot 38-of-82 from three-point range in Games 6 and 7, hitting 17 of 37 shots Monday. Kevin Durant, who finished Monday's tilt with 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting, summed it up, per Royce Young of ESPN.com:
This isn't sour grapes. Nor is it an exaggeration. Quantitatively speaking, the Thunder were better than the Warriors for most of the series, per ESPN Stats & Information:
The only real failure we can pin on the Thunder is this: They didn't know how to react when the Warriors just kept making impossible shots.
So, sure, OKC seized up a little bit in the late going Monday—a bad look for the team that blew more fourth-quarter leads in the regular season than anyone else. And, it should be added, a worse look for the Thunder after they faltered down the stretch in Game 6.
But can you blame them?
They watched Curry hit ridiculous isolation, quick-trigger treys against perfectly set defenders (even if the Warriors were wise to seek out switches for this purpose). They endured Thompson's incendiary marksmanship, riddled with 28-foot turnarounds and off-balance flings, in Game 6.
Thompson provided another unconscious shooting streak in the second quarter Monday, hitting four triples in the period and keeping Golden State within striking distance. He finished with 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting from deep.
Generally and consistently, OKC forced the Warriors' vaunted offense to stagnate, to become almost totally reliant on individual shot-making—exactly the thing everyone has always pilloried the Thunder's attack for.
The Warriors made shots because that's what they do. That's their ultimate skill, and it trumped everything else.
Against a normal foe, in a normal year, Oklahoma City's effort and execution would have been enough. Judging by what happened to a historically good Spurs team, it would have been more than enough.
But a 73-win team is not normal. And this is not a normal year.
Forget the lazy, myopic choking angle. If OKC screwed anything up, it was timing. It peaked when the Warriors just happened to hit the height of their powers.
It's difficult to frame things this way without slighting the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the Thunder provided the biggest challenge imaginable for the Warriors. For the Dubs, the hardest work is over...because how could anything be harder than that?
Yes, the Cavs have cruised through the East, never facing elimination (while the Warriors faced it three times in one series). And yes, the Cavaliers actually led Golden State 2-1 in last year's Finals, despite the absences of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
But after a fight like the one the Warriors just survived against the Thunder—one that required incomprehensible resolve, luck and something like the invisible hand of fate—it's difficult to concoct a scenario in which this Golden State team fails to finish the job.
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