You work all year. You suffer through the regular season and try and suck the marrow from the good parts, keep moving through the bad. You hope you're healthy. You hope you're together. And you hope that maybe, just maybe, you can find your best self when you're going to need it most.
The Oklahoma City Thunder found their best vs. the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 on Thursday night, winning the series 4-2 with a 113-99 victory at Chesapeake Arena. It was evident by midway through the second quarter that the Thunder, who built a lead as high as 28, had done two things: They had discovered what they were truly capable of with this versatile, athletic, skilled core, and they had solved the mighty 67-win San Antonio Spurs.
This series was supposed to represent some sort of hopeless yeoman's effort for OKC. The goal according to many was just to push the Spurs, convince Kevin Durant that this team was good enough to stay with in free agency. Instead, they became something else entirely. After getting blown out by 32 in Game 1, the Thunder very well could have fallen to pieces. At times holding leads and/or trailing in several fourth quarters in the ensuing five games of this series, they could have done what they've done all season and melted in money time.
Instead, in arguably the most important game in franchise history, vs. what is an all-time team standing in the shadow of what is likely the greatest team ever, the Thunder rose. They rose with Russell Westbrook screaming toward the rim yet playing under control. (That Westbrook played "under control" with six turnovers is pretty much everything Westbrook.) They rose with Kevin Durant rising up to hit big shots in the face of the Defensive Player of the Year who had supposedly surpassed him.
They rose with Steven Adams, who played through a migraine, vomiting before the game, only to cement himself as a true impact center, owning the glass and taking it hard to the rim when the Spurs turned to Boban Marjanovic. They rose with Dion Waiters, who has finally accepted his role. They rose with Enes Kanter, who did everything you ask him to do defensively and made the impact on the boards they paid him to make.
They rose with Andre Roberson, who finally, finally, FINALLY made the open shots the Spurs dared him to make all series, then capitalized on that with a gigantic sequence of plays, out-hustling Kawhi Leonard for a huge loose ball and making smart plays throughout.
In the end, collectively, the Thunder rose over the Spurs, who became just the second team in NBA history to win 65-plus games and not make the conference finals, joining the 2006-07 Mavericks. Now OKC looks to see if its ceiling is even higher. They'll need it to be, because for every time they stymied and limited the Spurs, the Golden State Warriors, who they face in the Western Conference finals beginning Monday in Oakland, will have answers with perimeter attack after perimeter attack. The Thunder will be the underdogs, again, and expected to fall against an all-time great team, again.
This series, however, made it clear that the Thunder not only lack any intention of going quietly, but are resolute in their confidence that they can topple the Warriors, just as they did the mighty Spurs.
"This series wasn't our championship," Kevin Durant said of the Spurs series.
Maybe not, but for a Thunder organization that -- whether it likes it or admit it or not -- still needs to convince Durant of how great he has it in this little town, winning this series is no small feat. You don't go into the postseason with the kind of talent the Thunder have with small hopes, but given how great the Spurs have been, reaching this point is a milestone. No matter what, they beat the Spurs. They made their fourth Western Conference finals in six years.
In the end, Game 6 fit none of the narratives ascribed to the Thunder, or maybe all of them. Critics said you can't win in the playoffs needing your two guys to be great with a ball-dominant offense. Durant and Westbrook combined for 55 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists in Game 6. Critics said that the supporting cast couldn't step up. Roberson shot 3 of 5 from deep, scoring 14 points to go with seven rebounds. Dion Waiters had just two points and five shots, and earned every bit of his plus-12. Steven Adams had 15 points and 11 boards, Enes Kanter three big offensive rebounds.
"We're all in this together," Roberson said. "We can't do it in a one-man show. We have to keep sharing the ball, but I trust [Westbrook and Durant] to step up and make plays."
Everything flipped in this game, and over the course of this series; the Spurs became a predictable, sluggish, isolation-heavy mess. The Thunder shared the ball, played with energy and looked like the more poised, better prepared team for this stage. The Thunder all said the same thing, that through their struggles, they always kept a belief in each other, and that belief came together in this series.
"Throughout the season, we were still learning who we are as a team," Durant said.
Against the Spurs, the mighty, 67-win Spurs, the Thunder learned that at their best, they are as good as any team outside of Golden State. They conquered the mighty.
Now we get to find out if that will be enough against the mightiest. And what a show that's shaping up to be.
