Warriors weather storm long enough for stars to shine.

SALT LAKE CITY — When it was over, and the Warriors had effectively ended the series, Draymond Green and acting head coach Mike Brown hugged in the green paint.

Brown made it a point to commend Green. His All-Star forward was flustered and emotional in Game 3. But he got it together in time stamp out Utah’s hopes. Typically, Green was a microcosm for the Warriors’ mental state.

They were agitated. The comfort they have enjoyed all series was finally challenged. They were feuding with the referees. They trying to answer the venom from the crowd. They were barking at each other for blown assignments and wayward focus. On top of that, Utah was playing better.

It was enough to force the Warriors to dig in. They had to find their center before claiming a 102-91 win over the host Jazz, taking a 3-0 series lead. The Warriors are now in position to sweep these Western Conference semifinals on Monday.

“To feel that atmosphere, that vibe,” Curry said after finishing with 23 points on 20 shots. “It challenges you. It tests your ability to handle the emotional swings of a road game. We answered that really well. Turning their runs into a challenge and trying to make it fun and overcome it.”

Saturday, they got one of the key things they needed from this series. Adding Kevin Durant to the fold, plus overhauling the bench, has left the Warriors with a new chemistry composition. On top of that, Steve Kerr is out battling health issues, so they have a new voice. And Brown had to work on Saturday.

Curry and Klay Thompson were scuffling with their shot. They combined for 3 of 15 shooting from deep. Thompson had just six points on 1 of 9 shooting. After the game, center Zaza Pachulia — who finished with seven points — made a point to tell people about his feat of outscoring Thompson.

Green was constantly confronting the referees, eventually earning a technical foul. He had been good about keeping his fire contained so far in the postseason. But referee Bennie Adams gets under the skin of the Warriors like no other official, especially Green.

And on his way to the bench in the second quarter, Green gestured ‘2-0’ to the crowd as it celebrated his third foul — a funny taunt but also a sign he heard them and was bothered by them. He had teammates screaming at him to calm down before he pushed the right button from the bench as Adams T’d him up.

At times, the Warriors’ sidelines just looked a mess. Multiple huddles of conversations as players were pulling each other aside. Interactions with jeering fans. Bickering with referees. The Jazz took advantage, taking its first lead of the series late in the second quarter and led by as much as nine in the third. And then it all stopped. “They stayed poised,” Brown said. “We could’ve caved at any time. Our poise was tremendous. Our guys reeled it in. They stayed composed and they figured out how to get the job done.”

Perhaps that is a sign of weakness. The Warriors can be gotten to mentally, they can be lured into duress. That’s partly how Cleveland upset them in the NBA Finals, creating an environment that raised their stress.

But many of the players on this roster don’t have that experience. And as a unit, they certainly don’t have it together. Which is why Game 3 was good for the Warriors, even if it was largely self inflicted.

Because the truth is, they have to go through this, for this is how team chemistry is built.

The Warriors have never been buttonedup like, say, the Spurs. They’ve always been volatile, wearing their emotions on their sleeves. Their best players are emotional.

But now, with Durant in the core, this unit has to grow together through these fires.

They have to scream at each other and get through it. They have to challenge the coach and work it out. They have to overcome the elements, their own stretches of poor play and the crowds that hate them, by leaning on each other.

It’s not always pretty. It wasn’t so during the regular season, and the pressure is even greater in the postseason.

Saturday, they weathered the storm long enough for their stars to shine.

Because if they can avoid the meltdowns, if they can absorb the Murphy’s law moments that are almost inevitable in the postseason, they have four of the best players in the league to bring them home.

“That’s why they are who they are,” Jazz coach Quinn Snyder said. “Sometimes you do everything you can do. We executed better defensively. For the most part our guys dug in. Can’t say enough about the way our guys competed. Can’t say enough about the team that beat us.”