Golden State is back in NBA Finals
Stephen Curry shoots over the Thunder’s Kevin Durant on Monday in the Warriors’ 96-88 Game 7 win in the Western Conference finals, capping the defending champs’ comeback from a 3-1 series deficit. Curry scored 36 points.
If the Oklahoma City Thunder were going down like this, coughing up a 3-1 series lead to the defending champion Golden State Warriors after coming so close to making such an improbable run to the NBA Finals, Kevin Durant wanted his hands all over the ending.
So he buried that three-pointer with 2:51 left, then hit those free throws he’d earned going to the rim, and pulled up over Klay Thompson on the right side for a jumper that left all of Oracle Arena fearing the worst.
One apparent choke job, it seemed, was about to lead to another. The Warriors led by 11 with 3:10 to go, when back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry had gone behind-the-back around Durant going right for a finger roll at the rim. But in a finish that was every bit as exhilarating as the Western Conference finals itself, the Warriors held on in a 96-88 win that earns them a rematch against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And Curry, in fitting form, finished the deal.
With 1:18 left, in a play that Thunder forward Serge Ibaka will surely regret forever, he inexplicably fouled Curry on the left wing to give him three free throws and a 93-86 lead that relieved all sorts of pressure. After Durant missed a jumper, Curry escaped a chasing Andre Roberson to bury a three-pointer from the right wing with 26.8 seconds left that all but ended it.
The confetti fell as it had during every win in this building this season, but this was different.
Curry finished with 36 points (13-for-24 shooting overall, 7-for-12 from three-point range), eight assists and five rebounds. Fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson — whose Game 6 performance had gotten them to this point — had six three-pointers of his own in a 21-point outing. But this was about the Warriors defense.
Oklahoma City shot 38.2% overall, with Durant the only starter with an efficient night (27 points on 10-for-19 shooting). Russell Westbrook had a nightmare finish to his season, hitting seven of 21 shots (to go with 13 assists).
The Warriors, amazingly, became the 10th team out of 233 to recover from a 3-1 deficit in a seven-game series and survive. In doing so, they avoided — at least for now — an offseason of infamy that would have come had their historic 73-win regular season been for naught.
The third-quarter oohs and aahs in the Warriors’ 29-12 period all came from offensive plays — the Curry three from deep on the right wing as Ibaka closed that cut the deficit to five, the Thompson three on the right wing over Steven Adams, the Andre Iguodala three from the right that came after Curry beat Durant baseline and curled a perfect pass to his teammate, and certainly the Curry three that followed on the right wing that tied it 54-54.
But it was their defense — that stifling effort that forced the Thunder to miss 14 of 19 shots — that put them up 71-60 and on the verge of the Finals return.
As was the case in Game 6, when Oklahoma City led 53-48 at halftime, the Thunder controlled the pace and the paint in the first half but let the Warriors stay within striking range. This time, they trailed 48-42 after Curry hit a circus shot at the buzzer.
The Thunder opened a 24-19 lead after the first quarter that made it clear Game 6 was a distant memory. Their defensive length and versatility made things tough on the Warriors offense that shot 34.8% (8-for-23).