Adversity? Warriors easily sweep it aside
PORTLAND, Ore. — History awaits.
The Golden State Warriors closed out the Portland Trail Blazers with an emphatic statement Monday night, roaring back from a 17-point deficit to win 119-117 in overtime.
Now they head to their fifth straight NBA Finals. The first team to do that since the dynastic Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s.
“Our guys have been doing this for a while,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We know how to win.”
Understatement of the 21st century?
The Warriors know how to win. And they want to keep doing it for the next three weeks.
Will they achieve their coveted threepeat? Their fourth championship in five years?
All of those huge and historic milestones await as the Warriors now look at a full nine days off before the start of the NBA Finals on May 30. They will kick back, get healthy and watch as Toronto and Milwaukee play at least two more games to determine the NBA Finals matchup.
The Warriors have been competing in a playoffs of player Jenga: How many key pieces can you remove from your lineup without it collapsing? First, it was DeMarcus Cousins. Then, it was their best player, Kevin Durant.
On Monday, it was Andre Iguodala who was removed. Would that be the missing piece that caused the Warriors to collapse?
No, it wouldn’t.
“They help each other, they trust each other,” said Portland coach Terry Stotts, praising the Warriors’ “championship pedigree.”
If you had said the Warriors would lose the best player in the NBA yet win five straight playoff games without him, then lose Iguodala yet close out a sweep, most people would have laughed.
“I just can’t say enough about the competitive desire of this group of players and the culture that they’ve built together,” Kerr said. “The group has a fiber to them. When guys go down, they come together and win.”
Stephen Curry said the players took it as a challenge when Durant went down.
“The situation called for more aggressiveness,” he said. “We play with confidence because we’ve been here before.”
Experience might have been the biggest difference between the opponents. Oakland native Damian Lillard, playing with separated ribs, couldn’t fulfill his promise to return for one last game at Oracle Arena. He scored 28 points but was clearly gassed. The workload the Blazers’ top players took on all season was clear, as they played deeper into the postseason than any of them had in their careers.
In contrast, the Warriors knew how to pace. How to rest. How to explode when needed. Draymond Green, again, was the team’s energizer, pushing the pace late in the game to get his team back to the NBA Finals. He and Curry carried the Warriors over the finish line to another Finals berth.
“It’s incredible,” Green said. “Basketball careers aren’t that long. I don’t even know what to say about five straight . ... But we know we still have more work to do. With nine days off, we need to get our guys back healthy. I’ve been to Finals and lost. It’s no fun.”
The Warriors still know how to have fun while they’re doing this postseason steamroller thing. In their huddle before taking the court, they usually circle around Durant. Without Durant there, they’ve picked random objects to huddle around: a ball, a mop.
On Monday, Curry pulled an Oregon reporter, Geoffrey Arnold, into the huddle. After the game, Arnold asked the first question at the news conference. Green interrupted him.
“You were good luck today!” he said.
Green then offered to buy Arnold’s flight to the Finals, “but I ain’t paying for your hotel.”
The Warriors were also excited to have Colin Kaepernick sitting on their bench and celebrating them.
“Being in the Bay so long, I’ve always followed them,” Kaepernick told me. “And they’ve always supported me.”
There wasn’t a lot of drama in this series but there were fun moments, such as when Curry traveled at a critical moment with 10 seconds left in regulation. His brother Seth, on the Portland bench just behind where Curry took the extra steps, made an emphatic traveling motion.
“He’s been tattle-tailing on me since birth,” Stephen said.
The Western Conference finals will be remembered for the brother-on-brother matchup, for Lillard and Klay Thompson playing against their childhood teams. But it will be remembered mostly for the Warriors playing without two of their most important players, yet not missing a beat on their way to another NBA Finals. Now they rest. And wait. And prepare to face their date with history.