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Havoc. Chaos. The Oracle crowd gathered itself for a collective cardiac event. Six-point game, less than a minute to go, Kevin Durant, with a pass from Russell Westbrook off his own offensive rebound, launches a three to cut the Warriors' once secure lead to within a single possession.

Nope.

But the miss isn't the story here. The story is what Durant did after after the miss, when he calmly walked to the bench, hugged his teammates, gave high-fives, exchanged a moment with assistant Mo Cheeks, and finished the game out with the nodding, knowing look of a very confident man. The message? We've still got this.

The Thunder fell in Game 5 to the Warriors 120-11 and will now head back to Oklahoma City for what is going to be a near-must-win in Game 6. A loss in that game would spin all the momentum to the Warriors headed back to Oracle for a Game 7.

The Thunder clearly feel it will not get that far. Their tone after the game went beyond confident, to brazen. They are acting like a team that is going to win this series, just by believing it. They have reason to. In Game 5, consider all the things that went right for Golden State:

  • Stephen Curry shook loose with 31 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He got to the rim, finishing with his patented high-arcing flip shots in exploiting the OKC's bigs.
  • Draymond Green broke out of his funk and while he had only 11 points, he finished with 13 rebounds and four huge blocks while making the kinds of emotional plays that so often fuel the Warriors.
  • Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to shoot 23 of 59 from the field with 10 turnovers.
  • Mo Speights had more points than the entire Thunder bench.
  • The Warriors shot 47 percent, the Thunder just 43 percent. The Warriors out-rebounded the Thunder, had more second-chance points, fewer turnovers, more fast-break points, and they outscored the Thunder by 18 in the paint.

And yet, the Thunder, on the road, were in it until the very end. They led at one point in the second half and could've cut it to a three-point deficit in the finals 30 seconds. They just kept hanging around, staying within distance, constantly breaking Warriors runs. Golden State had enough big plays to keep separation, but never enough to break the game open, the way they have so often for two years. The Thunder chased them the whole way.

Chasing won't be enough, however, and you don't get wins or bonus points for being close. This isn't horseshoes. But it does show why OKC is so confident. It took one of Golden State's better punches, at home, to barely beat them on a night when they didn't even play particularly well.

The Thunder are also angry. From the unnecessary mockery of Stephen Curry's defense with Russell Westbrook openly laughing at the suggestion Curry is underrated defensively (side question: why would you possibly want to give this team and that player extra motivation?), to Kevin Durant's surliness about he and Westbrook's shot selection, the Thunder are having none of it.

There's a fine line between confident, insistent, focused, intense.... and on-tilt, losing control, emotional. The Thunder had their chances to steal Game 5 and close out the mighty Warriors, and instead find themselves back against the wall. They have plenty of reasons to believe they remain in control, but they're walking a tightrope, balancing between intensity and recklessness, whether they realize it or not. They kept that in check as they built their 3-1 lead. They have to keep doing so.

Now the Thunder face the most important game of their season, with a trip to the Finals on the line. They don't doubt that they can beat this team. But being able to beat the Warriors and actually beating the Warriors are two different matters entirely. The Thunder had their shot in Game 5. They missed.

For all their confidence, they better not miss again on Saturday.

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The Thunder were close, but not close enough in Game 5. USATSI