Stumbling, bumbling through most of game before improbable win
NEW ORLEANS — For about 45 minutes on the game clock Thursday night, the Warriors’ lives flashed before their eyes.
They were pushed to the edge of the cliff by the Pelicans and forced to take a long, sobering, frightening look at the hollow meaninglessness of a 67- win season and its colorful festooning, including a likely MVP trophy for their best player.
Facing the biggest hangover in New Orleans history, the Warriors
fought their way back from 20 behind at the end of the third quarter, tied it as the fourth quarter ended on a fall-into-the-Mississippi corner threepointer by Guess Who, and won in overtime, 123- 119.
No playoff series begins until someone wins a road game, or until Game 7. The series began Thursday. And probably ended.
Forgive me the impertinence of predicting a Warriors win in this series, but the proposition now becomes: The Warriors’ season begins when Charles Barkley begins to sweat.
Sir Charles says a jumpshooting, finesse team can’t win it all. That proposition is still up in the air, but after Thursday night, the world looks at the Warriors — and maybe they look at themselves — in a new light.
Maybe these odd upstarts are for real.
You don’t stave off a disaster like the whipping the Pelicans were laying on the Warriors without adding some steel and confidence to your playoff package.
Man, what a day, and a night.
A hard rain fell on Bourbon Street on Thursday afternoon, washing a lot of recycled booze into the mighty Mississippi. No rain had been forecast, but stormy weather can blow in off the Gulf of Mexico without warning, and if you’re not prepared, it can really rain on your parade.
A few hours later, another unpredicted storm, this one a perfect storm for the Pelicans, blew into Smoothie King Center, in the form of an impressive performance against the mighty — but suddenly mortal — Warriors.
The Warriors, going into the fourth quarter with that 20- point deficit, were looking at a brand new series, their lead cut to 2- 1 and facing the defining moment of their season.
Am I being overly dramatic? Hey, it’s New Orleans, city of big emotions, noise, commotion and crashing to Earth. But reality is reality, and the Warriors’ version of reality, got slapped around for about 40 minutes Thursday night.
The talk during the day, at the Warriors’ shootaround, was about awards. Draymond Green got edged out for Defensive Player of the Year honors, and that topic got batted around by the media and the players. There’s also a buzz in the air about the impending announcement of the NBA MVP award, generally expected to go to Stephen Curry.
But all the talk of awards kind of faded into the distance, like the departing rainstorm, when the Pelicans showed up big and the Warriors stumbled badly for three quarters.
It looked like the swagger had been knocked off the Warriors. Memories began to burble up of a Dallas team, led by a league MVP, that came into the playoffs on a 67- win high and lost to an eighth seed.
The Warriors escaped that nightmare, but man, it was not easy. The Pelicans have been playing the Warriors tough since the first half of Game 1, and Thursday they really stepped up. Anthony Davis looked like he truly figured out what the playoffs were all about, wheeling and dealing, winding up with 29 points and 15 rebounds.
But the Warriors, as the old saying goes, are who we thought they were. In terms of the first round of the playoffs, you can crown their ass.
Remember those Splash Brothers? Curry wound up with 40 points, and if anyone else but him is named MVP, the Warriors will laugh until they cry, then move on to the next game. It took Curry 29 shots to get those 40, but he also had nine assists and got to the line 14 times.
And his end- of- regulation corner shot goes into the alltime Warriors’ highlight reel, considering what was on the line.
Brother Klay Thompson scored 28, and it’s important to note that Curry and Thompson have both raised their games in this opening playoff series, each adding significantly to their regularseason scoring averages. That’s what the great players do.
And speaking of great players — yes, it’s about time to put him there — Green overcame a very bumpy game by grabbing 17 rebounds, and helping prevent Davis from going off in the second half and winding up with 50.
The Warriors survived a storm. More bad weather is on the horizon, for sure, in this series or in what remains of the playoffs, but the Warriors will wake up Friday morning with a clear head and a new vision of the future.