Warriors bounce back, and their mystique travels with them to Game 6
If the Warriors are perfectly suited to the challenge in front of them, so, too, are the Thunder
By
Ken Berger
•
5 min read
OAKLAND -- Stephen Curry swiped the ball away from a driving Kevin Durant and raced the other way. Across the halfcourt line, an eight-point lead dancing precariously along with the ball on his fingertips, Curry stopped.
And seethed.
He pounded the ball -- hard -- four times into the floor. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Even in an arena filled with 19,596 crazies, you could hear the impact in all corners of Oracle Arena.
It reminded me of how LeBron James spiked the ball into the floor in almost the same spot after the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Warriors in Game 2 of the NBA Finals here last summer. There was no primal scream from Curry here now, just elation.
And some regrets. Some frustration.
"I think I was frustrated that I missed a couple of shots and needed that defensive stop to give us that opportunity," Curry told CBS Sports after the Warriors extended their historic season for another game Thursday night with a 120-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. "We needed to collect ourselves and finish the game strong."
Despite a wild flurry at the end, that they did. The 73-win Warriors, bludgeoned in Games 3 and 4 in Oklahoma City, rediscovered some semblance of themselves in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals -- facing a 3-1 deficit, with everything on the line.
"We never lost confidence in ourselves or doubted," Curry told CBS Sports. "We just know what a tough road we have in front of us."
And that was part of what came out when Curry slammed the basketball into the floor -- not once, but four times, precisely the number of losses it will take for the Thunder to eliminate them. Despite the venue of the next game, nobody expects it to be easy. Oklahoma City is a monster, if you haven't noticed. And they have to feel good about their chances going home.
But in Game 5, at least, the Warriors did not go quietly into the night, and despite the long odds of replicating this kind of performance in a building where they were beaten so soundly, it presents a multi-dimensional problem for the Thunder.
And sets up a matchup of two teams that really are ideally suited to the circumstances they're in.
Beating the Warriors, knocking out the defending champs and slapping an asterisk on their record-breaking regular season, if not effectively eradicating it altogether, will involve more than just beating the five players they have on the floor at any given time. It will take more than switching ball screens and clouding Curry's vision and winning the rebounding battle and protecting the rim and all the things that make up the technical aspects of winning a basketball game.
The Thunder go home on Saturday for Game 6, still in control. But they're dealing not only with the Warriors, but also their mystique.
Their belief that if any team can do this, it's them.
"This ain't our first time going on the road," said Draymond Green, who bounced back from two awful performances in Oklahoma City with 11 points, 13 rebounds and a couple more leg-kicks that were making the rounds on Twitter into the morning hours.
"We all know we're not ready to be done," Klay Thompson said.
On Thursday morning at the Warriors' practice facility in downtown Oakland, Green had said the same.
"Everybody believes what we're going to do," he said.
And this was before Green was able to (mostly) erase the stain of two of the worst games of his basketball life -- coming at the very worst time. Watching film of himself in Games 3 and 4, Green said, "I see a guy who I don't know. And I refuse to see that guy again."
And?
"I think I was better tonight," Green said. "But I still didn't do all the things I'm capable of doing."
He had a technical to go with his double-double, and the Thunder no doubt will be letting the league office know about two more instances of Green wildly kicking his leg on shot attempts. But most of what the Warriors promised -- what they believed about a road that would be impassable for the average basketball team -- came true in Game 5.
Which was the only game that mattered, because it would've been the only game left for the Warriors if they had lost.
The problem is, the team they're facing is as ideally suited to its circumstances as the Warriors are to theirs.
After the Thunder's wild, improbable comeback attempt fell short in a flurry during the final minute, Kevin Durant was in the visiting locker room playing the role of leader/therapist. Andre Roberson, who had been so good in Games 3 and 4 and fouled out with only six points in Game 5, stood next to Durant with his hands on his knees.
Durant put his head on the back of Roberson's head, consoling him. The message: You played so hard. Don't worry. We're going home.
"We know we're going back home, but we can't relax," said Durant, who had 40 points and missed a 3-point attempt that would've cut Golden State's lead to three with 35 seconds left.
"Hell, yeah, I want that back," he said. "But I'm living with that."
It's what they've done all season. And if you're going to say the Warriors are built for what we will witness Saturday, you have to say the Thunder are, too.
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Thunder stumbled to six losses in eight games, including two to these Warriors in six days. In one of them, Curry sent them reeling with that ridiculous 38-foot pullup in overtime. There were losses to New Orleans, Cleveland, the Clippers, Minnesota and San Antonio, too. And as they look back on that stretch, members of the coaching staff and front office view it not as a blemish, but as a turning point in their season.
A time when some of the things Billy Donovan was trying to change about them first started to take hold.
A time when they got better, and got prepared for moments like they will face Saturday in Game 6 -- in the same way that they prepared to eliminate the mighty Spurs in the last round.
Sure enough, there was Donovan in the interview room late Thursday night, preaching the same.
"This series has made us better," he said. "It's helped us grow and improve. We're in a series right now, and it's on to the next game."
Yes, the next game. The Warriors made sure there will be one.
On the long walk from the interview room to the family room at Oracle Arena, Curry took a moment to survey the landscape. The regrets of dropping Game 1 at home and getting obliterated in Games 3 and 4 on the road haunted him, but there's only one game on the two-time MVP's mind now.
The next one.
"We've got to win one game on Saturday and then take it from there," he told CBS Sports. "We know we can do it; there's no doubt about that. We just have to go out and have, hopefully, our best game of the year."
That's what it's going to take. On both sides.
