SPLASH BROTHERS ON SPOT IN NBA FINALS GAME 6.
OAKLAND, Calif. — They put the roar in Roaracle, they put the fear of god in opponents’ hearts, they revolutionized basketball, together they’ve gone to five NBA Finals in a row — and now the Splash Brothers are facing their greatest challenge.
If the Warriors are going to stave off elimination, and maybe extinction, the Splash Brothers are going to have to party like it’s 2016.
Or like it’s the last 2½ minutes of Game 5 in Toronto on Monday night.
The Warriors were down 3-1 to the Raptors in the NBA Finals. They had lost Kevin Durant, and they trailed the Raptors by six points with 2½ left in the game. Then:
Klay Thompson took a pass from Stephen Curry and buried a 3-pointer over the long reach of Kawhi Leonard … Curry came off a DeMarcus Cousins screen, took a pass from Andre Iguodala and sank a 3 … Curry, double-teamed, passed to Iguodala, who zinged a pass to Draymond Green, who fired crosscourt to Thompson, who pump-faked Leonard into the air, paused, and killed a 3. Splash, splash, splash.
Can they keep that magic alive?
Let’s face it: NBA defenses have caught up to the Splash Brothers. They’re still a devastating force of nature, but they are not the out-of-control duo they were at the height of their 3-point bombing in the 2015-16 season.
The Brothers’ 3-point shot opportunities are increasingly fewer and their shooting windows increasingly tighter, and for sure that will be the case against the Raptors in Game 6 Thursday at Oracle, and in a possible Game 7 in Toronto.
Kevin Durant helped spread the floor and tax the defense and maximize 3-point opportunities for the Splash Brothers, but he’ll be watching the game from his hospital bed in New York.
The Brothers will have to return to the day when it was all about them.
The Splash Brothers were at their height in the 2015-16 season. Steve Kerr arrived the previous season, bringing with him a scheme to maximize the distance-shooting talents of Curry and Thompson through constant ball movement and cutting.
Actually the monster was set in motion under the previous coach, Mark Jackson, who empowered the Brothers by outrageously proclaiming them the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history.
With that vote of confidence, and Kerr’s offense, the Brothers took off. They made Kerr (and Jackson) look like a genius in 2014-15, but they really blossomed in 2015-16. Curry hit a preposterous 402 3s in the regular season, shooting .454 from the arc. Thompson drilled 276 3s and shot .425.
Since then, their Brother bombing numbers have been on decline. This season Curry was 354-for-810 from 3, 43.7 percent, and Thompson was 241-599 and 40.2 percent, down from the previous season’s .440.
However, nobody believes the Splash Brothers have been rendered obsolete. In the five games of the Finals, Steph and Klay have each made 20 3s. Thompson, who missed one game with a hamstring issue, has been superefficient, 20-for-35, a sizzling 57.1 percent. So much for his 3-point slump this season. Curry in the first five games is 20-56 (35.7 percent).
Over the years, Curry has shifted his offensive emphasis toward driving to the hoop, and that’s been the case in these Finals. While Thompson has taken six free throws, Curry has gone to the free-throw line 51 times (48-51, 94.1 percent).
What the Brothers will need in Game 6, along with hot hands, is effective playmaking, especially from Draymond Green, big-time screen-setting by the bigs, and the kind of crisp ball movement that has defined the Warriors of the Kerr Era.
They had all that rocking in Game 5, when the Warriors hit 20 3s, the most for them in any Finals game of their five-year run. They were 20-for-42, 47.6 percent. Curry was 5-14, Thompson 7-13.
Points are points, but the Warriors will want to ride the emotion of the fans who will be participating in the last Warriors’ game at Oracle, and nothing fires up the home fans like the Splash Brothers, separately or together, making it rain.
There is a sound unique to Oracle: When Curry or Thompson launches a 3, a collective gasp of anticipation rises from the crowd, like they’re witnessing the first long shot ever attempted. The sound gets louder, like a jet plane taking off, as the shot arcs toward the hoop. Then, either a deflated “uhhhh” from the fans, or a massive explosion of joy that vibrates the old barn to its rivets.
They won’t need this arena after Thursday night. Might as well shake it down.