Down 3-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals after a 118-94 road loss Tuesday night, the defending National Basketball Association champions will have to win three straight games to advance.
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Now we’re seeing a team that is making the historically best team in the history of the NBA’s regular season look incompetent.
Despite finishing the regular season with a record-breaking 73 wins, the Golden State Warriors find themselves one game away from playoff elimination.
Every player is different, too, and right now two-time MVP Stephen Curry is a mere shell of his former self for the Golden State Warriors.
“I think it just snowballs as a game goes on”, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said Thursday.
And although the Thunder threatened to steal the game, this wild series will now head to Oklahoma, where the Warriors will be hoping to send it back to Oakland for a decisive game seven.
“Boges was phenomenal”, Kerr told reporters about his performance in the Warriors’ 120-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I liked our will, I liked our fight”, coach Steve Kerr said afterwards. “So if we take care of business at home, we’ll have one more swing down there and we’ll see what happens”.
Iguodala and Barnes then nailed their 3-pointers, opening an 89-77 advantage, Golden State’s biggest lead of the game to that point.
Thunder forward Kevin Durant scored 26 points on 8-of-24 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. Bogut played 30 minutes after playing no more than 17 minutes in any of the previous four games. He played only played two halves against Houston, and hadn’t played a full game from the regular-season finale on April 13 and Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against Portland on May 9 – almost a month.
“We’ve got to believe in ourselves”.
Before Scott Brooks’ final season in which the team didn’t even make the playoffs, Oklahoma City had been to three conference finals and an NBA Finals, never quite cresting that final ridge.
“We all know we’re not ready to be done, and we can do it, just one game at a time, obviously and enjoy it. Because, I mean, it’s tough to win a championship. We just try to continue to keep going”. You won’t be missed that much, and the rest of us will be grateful for the extra leg and elbow room. The Thunder outrebounded the Warriors 56-40 and outscored them 31-19 from the free throw line. But Westbrook kept committing turnovers, and his fifth of the game led to Green’s 3-point play on the other end to give the Warriors a 72-68 lead.
Bogut edged his Kiwi counterpart Steven Adams in an Antipodean battle, as the Thunder center was forced to sit early after picking up two quick fouls inside the first three minutes.
Durant will always have his foot on a defense’s neck, but when Westbrook plays at the crescendo of his abilities, it’s a wrap for the rest of the league.
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Following Oklahoma’s Game 4 victory, they now lead the series 3-1, according to Stuff Sports.
