Thunder foil Warriors at home, take opener
OAKLAND, California – Outside his locker room, first-year Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan received a round of handshakes and hugs for pulling off something no other team has this postseason.
The Thunder beat the defending champs at Oracle Arena.
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City dazzled in the fourth quarter the way the Warriors have done so many times during their record-setting season, rallying from 14 points down for a 108-102 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Monday night.
“You have to have a mindset coming into these kinds of venues. Our guys, I think they understand what they’re walking into,” Donovan said. “You don’t just walk in here say, ‘Oh, everything’s going to be OK.’ You have to have a mindset to understand. The first thing is to embrace the fact it’s going to be hard.”
Durant scored 26 points and made a key 17-foot jumper with 30.7 seconds left, while Westbrook scored 24 of his 27 points in the second half. Westbrook also had 12 assists and seven steals in the opener of the Thunder’s fourth West finals in six years.
“We just stayed with it on the defensive end and when we got the shots late in the game we were able to focus in and knock them down,” Durant said. “We’re just a resilient group and keep fighting ‘til the end.”
Game 2 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena. If this one was any kind of preview of what is coming, this should be a dandy of a series between the NBA’s highest-scoring teams from the regular season.
“We’ve just got to compete,” Westbrook said. “It’s going to be a tough game. It’s a tough building. They have a lot of great players on their team, but I know we’re a great team and when we put our minds to it, tonight we didn’t play our best game and we came out with a win.”
Steven Adams made a pair of free throws for Oklahoma City with 1:01 remaining, and Klay Thompson missed a reverse lay-in moments later on the other end. Adams finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots.
MVP Stephen Curry had 26 points and a playoff career-high 10 rebounds, but the Warriors missed too many shots down the stretch. The Warriors’ 42 secondhalf points and 14 in the fourth both were lows for this postseason.
“We got rushed and tried to go for the home-run plays. Sometimes it works,” Curry said. “Defensively we were getting enough stops and rebounds. We got out of character a little bit. It’s something we’ll learn from going forward.”
With his team down 105-102, Steve Kerr begged for a traveling call on Westbrook at midcourt with 17.2 seconds left, with the NBA Coach of the Year signaling with his arms before going into a squat. Oklahoma City got a timeout instead. Westbrook made one free throw with 14.5 seconds to go.
“I do think we lost our poise a little bit,” Kerr said. “And that had a lot to do with the quick shots.”
Thompson scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half, but shot 3 for 10 over the last two quarters. Curry’s 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer gave Golden State a 60-47 lead at the break.
Durant scored to get his team within 88-85 going into the final quarter, and then knocked down a tying 3 just 12 seconds into the fourth. Dion Waiters’ layup at 10:30 put the Thunder ahead for the first time since the opening quarter.