Golden State Warriors vs Oklahoma City Thunder - Game 3 - Full Highlights | 2016 NBA Playoffs
OAKLAND, Calif. After 27 quarters of some of the most dramatic and compelling basketball the NBA has seen, the Golden State Warriors found themselves 12 minutes away from a return trip to the NBA Finals, an escape from a three-games-to-one deficit in these Western Conference finals and a chance to stake a claim as the greatest team in the history of the sport.
Then they handed the ball to Stephen Curry, and the NBAs two-time defending MVP carried his team home.
Behind 36 points and eight assists from Curry including 15 points in the fourth quarter and 24 in the second half Golden State emerged with a thrilling 96-88 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in front of an enthralled sellout crowd of 19,596 inside Oracle Arena. With the victory, the Warriors will get two days to rest and prepare for a rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the championship round, which will begin here Thursday night.
Steph is gonna Steph, Warriors center Festus Ezeli said. He came out and showed why he is the MVP.
[Posting Up: NBA podcast: Sam Amick on Game 6 of Warriors-Thunder]
The final outcome, however, was far from a formality, as the Thunder continued to push the Warriors far harder than anyone would have expected. It didnt become official until Curry scored six straight points in the final 90 seconds after the Thunder had closed within four on a Kevin Durant jumper with 1 minute 40 seconds remaining.
But after Curry was fouled on a three-point attempt by Serge Ibaka with 1.8 seconds remaining on the shot clock and 1:18 remaining in the game, and made all three free throws to push Golden States lead to 93-86, Curry sealed the game with signature aplomb a few seconds later.
When Durant missed a three-pointer with 43.8 seconds left, Curry brought the ball up on a fast break, brought the ball out to the three-point line and put on a dribbling exhibition.
After getting away from Thunder guard Andre Roberson, Curry pulled up and let fly with a three-pointer his seventh of the game with 26.8 seconds that dropped through the bottom of the net, giving the Warriors a 96-86 lead and ensuring that their chase for history would live on. As Thunder Coach Billy Donovan called a timeout, Curry let out a primal scream and exhorted the Warriors fans to get on their feet and celebrate a command they were all too glad to comply with.
It was a cool moment, Curry said later. Obviously there was still time on the clock, but that was a moment to kind of just take in the atmosphere.
It was just a very cool moment to enjoy that fan noise, and understand we were on the brink of doing something very special and coming back from down 3-1, and that was it.
That this series came down to the final seconds of the seventh and final game was a testament to the resiliency the Thunder showed after giving up a fourth-quarter lead and losing at home in Game 6 Saturday night a loss that happened only because of a pair of historic performances from Curry and Klay Thompson.
Durant finished with 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting in Game 7, scoring 12 points of his own in the fourth to try to drag the Thunder over the finish line. But every time the Thunder made a shot or a play, the Warriors and usually Curry were there with an answer.
It was an equation that proved destined to end with a Warriors victory.
It is a lot of what-ifs, said Durant, who said he hadnt begun to think about his impending free agency this summer, though the widespread belief is that he will re-sign with Oklahoma City on a one-year deal. We could have said a lot of what-ifs throughout the whole playoffs.
[But] youve got to credit them. They came out and played well the last three games of the series, and won three in a row. Youve got to give them credit.
After two weeks of playing one another, there was little left to figure out about either team heading into this final game. The one lingering question, however, was whether the Warriors would keep Andre Iguodala in the starting lineup in place of Harrison Barnes, a change they made at the start of the second half of Game 6.
It turned out, however, that one of those alterations was, in fact, to leave Iguodala in the starting five, allowing him to match up even more regularly with Durant. He also is a better ballhandler and distributor than Barnes, which he proved by hitting a cutting Draymond Green for a basket to open the scoring.
[Responsible for Klay Thompsons Game 6 performance, Yoda socks were]
That wound up being a rare positive moment for the Warriors offensively early on. Oklahoma City raced out to its latest hot start in this series, taking a five-point lead after the first quarter that it pushed to as much as 13 at one point and 12 at another in the second. But in an eerily similar way to how Game 6 played out, the Warriors managed to hang around despite being significantly outplayed for large portions of the opening 24 minutes.
Once Steven Adams hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 45-33 with 2:21 remaining in the second quarter, though, the Warriors closed the half with a 9-3 run capped by a Curry circus layup over three defenders that kissed high off the glass and fell through the hoop at the buzzer to send Golden State into the break trailing 48-42.
After that strong first half, though, Oklahoma City fell apart in the third quarter. The Warriors outscored the Thunder 29-12, including closing the quarter with a 13-2 run as the Thunder missed its final five shots of the quarter to go from leading by one to down 11 heading into the fourth.
With everything on the line, Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said, our guys all came through.
Led by one guy in particular, of course. In those final 12 minutes, with everything on the line, Curry did what hes done time and again these past two seasons and carried the Warriors home and on to the NBA Finals.
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNGcL4enfJkBxFTqwzBEc_1s5q_uSA&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779123615627&ei=pyVNV9iUNdOZ3AG2ybPQDA&url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/curry-warriors-complete-comeback-head-to-nba-finals/2016/05/30/582b447e-26a1-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html
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