Warriors complete big comeback

OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson carried the 73-win Warriors right back to the NBA Finals, as Golden State rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 96-88, Monday night in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals at Oracle Arena.

Curry scored 36 points with seven 3-pointers to finish with an NBA-record 32 in a sevengame series; Thompson added 21 points and six 3-pointers, two days after his record 11 3pointers led a Game 6 comeback that sent the series home to raucous Oracle Arena for one more.

The Warriors became the 10th team to rally from a 3-1 deficit and win a postseason series. They return to the NBA Finals for a rematch with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost the 2015 title in six games as Golden State captured its first championship in 40 years.

Game 1 is Thursday night in Oakland.

The Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals; Kevin Durant’s future in Oklahoma City is much less certain.

Two nights after blowing an opportunity to close out the defending champion Warriors at home, the Thunder got sent home for the summer when they lost Game 7. Instead of becoming known as the team that knocked off the Warriors after their recordsetting 73-win regular season, the Thunder will be remembered for a playoff collapse. Oklahoma City became just the 10th NBA team to lose a playoff series after taking a 3-1 lead and now head into an uncertain offseason with Durant eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in July.

If he does leave the only franchise he has played for in his nine-year career, he will do it having failed to deliver a championship. The closest the Thunder has gotten in Durant’s tenure was when it lost the NBA Finals in five games to LeBron James and the Miami Heat in 2012.

It then lost in the second round the next season, in the conference finals in 2014 to San Antonio before missing the playoffs entirely because of an injury to Durant.