The victor of Game 7 between Warriors and Thunder will face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015-16 NBA Finals. He and Thompson combined for 16 3-pointers, their most ever in a playoff game.
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Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 29 points, but he missed on 21 field goals, while point guard Russell Westbrook had 28 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.
Okahoma City went back to its iso hero ball plays in the closing minutes, to stave off the Warriors’ comeback but the move backfired. “That’s all we could ask for”. We needed every single one of them.
Kerr has learned to live with the long-range heroics of Thompson and Curry. “‘You know, put on a show out there and have fun'”. But Durant made just 10 of 31 shots and Westbrook was 10 of 27.
Golden State got a more typical effort from Curry on Thursday night after two subpar games in Oklahoma City. The Warriors forced 17 turnovers during Game 5, not letting the Thunder relax on offense.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan said his players don’t need to get ahead of themselves worrying about results. See everybody in the National Basketball Association has talent but again whoever makes the big plays down the stretch of the game, wins.
Now the general feeling among Warriors and Thunder is simple: “win or home”.
Then another just over a minute later to tie it, 99-99.
After a shaky first half, the Warriors came out firing and actually took an early 54-53 third-quarter lead on two 3-pointers by Thompson and it was a back-and-forth battle for much of the period.
Lethal, they were. While Curry started out slow, Thompson took over as the lead “Splash Brother” as he poured in a game-high 41 points, shooting 11-for-18 from 3-point range.
Again, Westbrook turned the ball over during critical junctures of the game.
“We can’t walk into shootaround, into the breakfast meeting and be upset”, Durant said.
“If it wasn’t for Klay Thompson, the Warriors wouldn’t be in this situation”. Golden State now seemingly has the momentum heading into Game 7 and have also been stellar at home all season.
“This game was probably the hardest of our lives”, Curry said.
“We’ve got to keep it going at home”.
His numbers were a far cry from the first four games, when he averaged only 14 minutes, three points and 4.3 rebounds.
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With the game being played on Monday, it gives both teams just 1 day between Game 6 and Game 7. We’re excited about that. “We’ve got a great opportunity”. We can’t squander that one away by getting in our own heads. We felt like we could turn the game around, and we did. This has been made even more so with the Warriors coming back after being down 1-3. “His defense was huge throughout the fourth, and he made that big tying layup, too (that tied the score at 101-101)”.
