Warriors’ turnaround sent series to Game 7
Team rallied, staved off elimination in 2018 Western finals
This story originally ran on May 27, 2018.
After leaning on that run to cover up first-half sluggishness throughout the 2017-18 regular season, the Warriors used the same tactic to salvage their championship aspirations.
The result: the Warriors finished with a 115-86 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday at Oracle Arena. They tied the series 3-3. They forced a Game 7 on Monday in Houston. And they did so by covering up first-half blemishes and a 17-point deficit with third-quarter dominance.
“This was a pretty good microcosm of our team in many ways,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We have these lapses and then we have these bursts and everything in between.”
First, the lapses: Instead of playing with the kind of des
peration and hustle needed to avoid elimination, the Warriors played with regular-season sluggishness. This also happened against a Rockets team without star guard Chris Paul, who suffered a strained right hamstring in the final minute of Game 5.
The Warriors trailed 3922 after the first quarter. The Rockets went 8 of 12 from 3-point range, while the Warriors went 1 of 7. Warriors forward Kevin Durant shot only 1 of 6 from the field, while Warriors guard Stephen Curry only shot 1 of 4 from 3-point range.
After Kerr inserted David West, Shaun Livingston and Nick Young for Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green with 2:03 left in the first quarter, the Rockets closed out the first quarter with a 9-2 run. As Thompson said, “we felt like we gifted them a great first quarter.”
“It’s a strange start to the game,” Kerr said. “You could tell Houston could see it, they could see the Finals right here. We kind of thought they would come out hot.”
Then, the bursts: the Warriors dominated in nearly every facet in the third quarter, including the score (33-16), field-goal percentage (52.4%-40%), 3-point shooting (63.6%, 33.3%), rebounding (13-8) and assists (6-2).
Thompson, calling up his Game 6 from the 2016 Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City, scored 12 of his 35 points, including
going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Curry posted nine of his 29 points, including draining 3 of 4 from 3-point range. And the Warriors opened the second half with eight unanswered points in 95 seconds, including two Thompson 3-pointers and a Durant dunk.
Kerr jokingly chalked up the difference to “incredible halftime adjustments.” In reality, the Warriors finally realized their poor execution would have ramifications that would last all summer.
“We were disappointed in ourselves and the fans were as well,” Thompson said. “We wanted to give them a good show. We didn’t want to go out like that. We wanted to force Game 7 so badly.”
The Warriors received
their wish once they opened the second half, including playing a fourth-quarter defense that Kerr called “fantastic.” Then, the Warriors held the Rockets to an all-time opponent playoff low in points in any quarter (nine). Houston went 4 of 19 from the field and 1 of 8 from 3-point range. It capped off a night in which Rockets guard James Harden had 32 points albeit on 10-of-24 shooting from the field and 4 of 12 from 3-point range.
Not that this should be surprising.
The Warriors have led the NBA in third-quarter offense (30.2 points per game) at the expense of their opponents (24.2). They also outscored their opponents by at least 20 points in the third quarter in seven regularseason
games. And the Warriors recorded a +371 plusminus rating during that stretch.
The Warriors may have struggled in late-game situations in losses in Game 4 and Game 5 loss to Houston. But the Warriors defeated the Rockets in Game 3, 126-85, after outscoring the Rockets 34-24 in the third quarter. The Warriors also have gone 4-1 in Game 6s since 2015, and avoided elimination just as they did in the 2016 Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City.
When it comes to a seriesdeciding Game 7, though, the Warriors sounded cognizant they cannot use the same tactic regardless of Paul’s uncertain availability.
“We have to be laser focused from the jump,” Curry said. “I guarantee if we start the game like we did and they jump out to a lead, it’ll be 10 times harder to make it a game. That’s our challenge mentality of having same mentality in the last 36 minutes.”
The Warriors pledged they learned their lesson. Well almost. Consider Durant’s awareness on when Game 7 starts.
“Guys are ready for it. We’re looking forward to going down there, locking in and being who we are,” Durant said. “I can’t wait till Tuesday.”
Curry and the assembled reporters alerted Durant that Game 7 is on Monday.
“Please don’t miss a game,” Curry cracked.
Thanks to the Warriors’ third-quarter dominance, they could joke about the next game instead of mourning they do not have another one to play.