1) With 6:33 left in the game, Steve Kerr called upon the Draymond Green-at-center Death Lineup, the group that’s pulled the Warriors to victory each time defeat was all but certain. The Thunder was up four, the crowd was raucous. Dray would soon pick up a fifth foul and the deficit would increase to seven. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were ready to seize and strike a final, deadly blow on the Warriors magical season. But then the small-ball lineup finally began to resemble the two-way monster we’ve seen all season. Klay and Steph started hitting ridiculous shots; Igoudala’s handsy defense gave Kevin Durant little room to breath, knocking the ball out of his hands multiple times; and Dray finally had a good game in OKC playing relentless post-defense and hounding guys on the perimeter, punching the rock out from Westbrook twice for Warriors points in transition. In OKC’s final eight possessions, six ended in a turnover, and all but one were turnovers the Warriors forced by smartly playing passing lanes and aggressively getting their hands on balls; it wasn’t like the Thunder was just making dumb passes, those turnovers were takenby the Warriors. The Death Lineup outscored the Thunder 21-10 in the final 6:33.
2) Klay Thompson kept the Warriors in the game early and threw the final blow late. His split-second, oh-my-goodness-did-he-really-
3) Igoudala might as well have just gotten inside Durant’s jersey with him by the way he was locking him up in that final stretch. Andre gave KD no room to operate, knocking the ball out of his hands twice (and once from Westbrook) and also sliding his feet quickly to stall his drives and allow for Green’s back line defense to arrive. Durant scored 29 points but needed 31 shots to do so. That was a vintage defensive performance by Iguodala, one that reminds us all that he was last year’s Finals MVP for good reason. Andre also scored eight points, with none bigger than the left-handed layup he somehow got to drop over the outstretched limbs of Andre Roberson.
4) You could hear Angry Twitter tapping furiously away at their screens calling for the MVP to return his trophy after a nine-point, 2-of-7 shooting, 3-turnover first half. But then in the second half, those doubters, like the crowd in Chesapeake Arena, turned silent as Steph finally found an offensive rhythm and went from “good” to “great.” He scored 14 points in the third and eight more in the fourth. His floater in the lane over Serge Ibaka was vintage Curry, the guy that’d been missing for most of this series. The MVP didn’t have a great shooting night, but willed himself to a 31-point, 10-rebound, 9-assist game. (He also did some A1 seven-fingered trolling of OKC fans)
5) Klay’s hounding defense on the perimeter and Andrew Bogut and Green’s secondary rim-protection helped to force Russell Westbrook into 10-of-27 shooting. The dynamic guard was again a monster, attacking for offensive rebounds and using hisinhuman speed to get into the lane, but in the fourth quarter he had 4 turnovers and shot just 2-of-7. The Warriors defense, when they can resist fouling, has done a decent job on Russ, turning him into a high-volume, low-efficiency scorer. Westbrook was one rebound shy of a triple double with a stat line of 28, 9, and 11.
6) After committing an insane 10 turnovers in the first half, the Warriors took much better care of the ball in the final two quarters, giving up the rock only five more times, and only once in the fourth quarter. In the three games the Warriors have won, they have either tied or won the turnover battle. In Game 4, the Dubs threw the ball away a ghastly 21 times. All the defensive schemes and deep-dive analytical number-crunching and Game 7 might just come to whether the Warriors can take care of each possession.
7) Score another point for jump shooting teams. Despite getting outscored in the paint 52-28, the Warriors won Game 6 because they were plus-54 from beyond the arc. Somewhere in the TNT studios in Atlanta, Charles Barkley is rolling over in his grave.
8) The Warriors won, so it’s easy to forget, but Kerr going with a no-Steph, No-Klay, No-Draymond lineup to start the second quarter was predictably disastrous. The coach obviously wants to give his starters a breather and, as a career role-player himself, thinks it’s important to have the bench guys feels invested in the team’s success. That’s great for team-building and all, but this is Game 6 of the WCF, you can’t just watch your team continue to bleed points to start second and fourth quarters and not adjust. Why not just stagger the minutes a bit to make sure either Curry or the Klay-and-Green combo are in the game at all times? You know, kind of like how Kerr ran the minutes to end the third and start the fourth.
9) It’s no coincidence that Klay’s incandescent shooting spree in the fourth quarter came with Roberson on the bench. Mr. Rob-berson/Robe-berson’s impossibly long arms and bouncy feet have hounded Klay into a poor shooting series, but with him on the bench, the other Splash Brother was finally given a sliver of daylight to get free.
10) Monday’s Game 7 is going to define careers and legacies. Should the Warriors win, they are going to get a chance to validate the greatest regular-season in NBA history with another championship. And they would get the opportunity to put to rest any lingering doubts about last year’s ring because the Cavs are healthy and rested this time — no more excuses.
Moreover, with the victory, Stephen Curry can rightly claim his MVP status in the game and silence the handful of fans and players who still question the legitimacy of his top spot. On the other side, if the Thunder wins, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will finally get that elusive ring and throw themselves into the “greatest duo of all time” conversation (not that they’d be considered the best, but at least they could start to be mentioned). Also with the win, and with Steven Adams playing an integral role in it, OKC could start to distance themselves from the disastrous James Harden trade. But were they to lose, the door for Durant to slip through via free agency gets cracked ajar ever so slightly, and this OKC team could go south in a heartbeat.
For the Warriors, a loss would be a sudden and embarrassing loss at the hands of a team that won fewer games than the Toronto Raptors. The team would face an uncertain off-season given Harrison Barnes impending restricted free agency, and the franchise would have to make some tough decisions on supplementing the bench unit. But all that’s for later to parse out. Right now, all I can think is that I don’t want this magical ride to end. It feels right for the Warriors to keep playing, to find a way to grind through this Game 7 and emerge from the Western Conference bloodbath victorious and seething at the mouth. They have 48 minutes on Monday night to write their own legacy and to create a new Warriors history, one defined by virtuoso performances and never-say-die attitudes. #Webelieve.