The Thunder lost all three games to Golden State during the regular season and head into the best of seven Western Conference finals as heavy outsiders. San Antonio entered the postseason with a 41-1 home record, yet Oklahoma City managed to escape with two road wins. They learned from trailing in the Western Conference semifinals last season against Memphis. He is fresh off becoming the NBA’s first unanimous MVP, but there’s more work to do.Golden State was outrebounded 62-32 in that 121-118 win on February 27, and the Warriors can’t even believe they pulled off that one.”I have no clue”, swingman Draymond Green said.
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Curry and Thompson were the highest-scoring duo in the National Basketball Association, averaging 52.2 points, while Durant and Westbrook were a close second at 51.7.
On the Thunder’s side, Westbrook and Durant have to combine for at least 70 points in order to win, which is entirely possible. This is more about their dynamic and the fact that Westbrook is a shoot-first point guard.
Durant scored to get his team within 88-85 going into the final quarter, and then knocked down a tying 3 just 12 seconds into the fourth.
“We got rushed and tried to go for the home-run plays”. He made both of shots to give the Thunder a 103-100 lead.
The Warriors might have gotten the ball back while trailing 105-102, but the officials missed Westbrook’s travel as he signaled for a timeout.
Kerr bemoaned a loss of composure in the final quarter, when the Warriors made only one of 10 attempted three-pointers – way below their normal levels of shooting accuracy. This is a mark that is accurately set enough to avoid bothering with it. Durant may get five assists per game, but he has done that just once in his past five, and it is quite possible he looks mostly for his own offense in this one. “That’s when it really shows”. Klay Thompson added 25 points (11/25 FG, 3/8 3PT), but the Thunder did a great job of limiting the two star shooters after halftime. Westbrook might be the fastest and most explosive point guard, a matchup nightmare who helped engineer the Thunder’s ouster of San Antonio. His playoff minute totals have hovered mostly in the teens during the playoffs, although the former No. 1 overall pick has logged 20-plus in three of the Warriors’ 10 postseason tilts. Over his past five games he has had 11 rebounds or more in three of them, but sandwiched between were back-to-back nine-board games against the Portland Trail Blazers. But we’re confident in Steven when he goes to the free-throw line.
Durant tied the score with a 3-pointer on the first basket of the fourth, and Dion Waiters put the Thunder ahead with a layup.
“It’s a flawless match of what I’ve been saying”, James said.
Curry finished 6 for 14 from 3-point range, but got off to a slow start as well. Cleveland is hitting 3 pointers like insane and they are clicking on all cylinders.
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Thompson led all scorers in the half with 19. Barnes is averaging 9 points per game on 9.2 shot attempts, dismissing the Playoff Barnes nickname given to him by the Warriors faithful.
