The best 2 guard in the NBA saved the Golden State Warriors' season tonight. After stinking up the joint in OKC twice to go down 3-1, the dubs season seemed doomed. We expected them to win game 5 at home, but sooner than later, they had to go back into OKC for this game 6. Nobody knew what to expect and the smart money was on the Thunder closing this one out and sending the dubs' 73 win season to an unceremonious and premature end. The concern for the dub-nation was not that they lost 2 road playoff games - that happens sometimes, but how they lost those. They were dominated and Thunder's length and athleticism seemed to bother and throttle the best team in the league. Draymond has been completely off the entire series and Curry has been mostly off. Draymond had a tough job going against players 3 to 6 inches taller who are also more athletic than him. He usually has some kind of an edge on one of these aspects against his opponents, but not in this one. Curry is usually impervious to any kind of defense and it's even hard to say what can ever slow that dude down. But he is definitely slowed down this series by the combination of Westbrook and their lanky, athletic defenders on switches. Given all this, they barely won game 5 even at home and it was not clear if they can get that one win they need on the road and force a game 7 at home.
But one man will not have any of these doubts and theories and decided to go down firing on all cylinders. It was the younger and understated splash brother. Klay Thompson single handedly kept the dubs in the game all night. The dubs problems from the previous games seemed to be all there in the first half and well into the fourth quarter - turnovers, thunder's offensive rebounding, sub-par shooting by Curry, strong outing by Durant and Russ, etc. etc. etc. Klay himself started with some rough shooting, but quickly turned it around. He then went on many runs of his own and looked every bit like the MVP when Curry is on one of his crazy rolls. Klay has been fighting and showing up every game this series and almost single-handedly brought them back in game 4 but the hole was too deep to dig out of. Today, the Warriors didn't let the Thunder run away. Thunder always led by 5 to 13 points and it seemed like the dubs can't close in and take the lead. Klay kept shooting and shooting for a playoff record 11 threes. Some of them where from Curry range and most of them were contested and almost all of them featured his ridiculously quick release. I was amazed more by his courage than his accuracy. He took some shots with this record-breaking season hanging in a balance and with the entire world watching. He just rose up and kept making treys.
Klay's shot from way out there at the top with less than 5 mins to go with the dubs trailing 96-89 and the other 3 from the wing to un-tie the game and give the dubs the lead with 1:35 to go after a Iguodala steal were both season-saving treys. KD and Russ are getting killed tonight for playing "hero ball" as they had a tough shooting night and OKC also collapsed at the end. This finish was part Thunder's ineptitude and part dubs' brilliance. But Klay kept the dubs in the game all night and Curry joined him at the end to kick off the splash show. The rest of the team D'ed up with key contributions as always from Andre Iguodala on both ends of the floor. The thing that makes Klay the best shooting guard in the league is his defense in addition to his marksmanship. The guy is relentless and is never tired. He chases the best wing player on the other team at one end and constantly moves without the ball on offense with no sign of ever tiring. Sure, the attention Curry attracts on offense helps him, but on nights like these, the reverse is true too. Klay is one of the best shooters in the history of the game, but just the second best shooter in his own team. So it's easy to overlook him. I am glad he is finally getting the props he deserves as many talking heads like Marc Stein and the Chuckster are starting to call him the best 2-way 2 guard in the league. James Harden can score at will, but he also gives up half of those at the other end with no effort. Klay is way more of a complete player at that shooting guard spot. Tonight, he got the dubs that coveted game 7 at home. Now they have to finish the job. It's not going to be easy as Durant and Westbrook fear no one and slow down for nobody. But I expect the dub nation to close it out at home.
Ex-Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich gave us this memorable quote during their second championship run - "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!" Warriors seem to be adding to that legend. Game 6 was a question mark. Klay made it an exclamation point with a signature, breakout playoff performance to the tune of 41 points. Game 7 can't be this hard for the Warriors if they keep their calm. Can't wait!
But one man will not have any of these doubts and theories and decided to go down firing on all cylinders. It was the younger and understated splash brother. Klay Thompson single handedly kept the dubs in the game all night. The dubs problems from the previous games seemed to be all there in the first half and well into the fourth quarter - turnovers, thunder's offensive rebounding, sub-par shooting by Curry, strong outing by Durant and Russ, etc. etc. etc. Klay himself started with some rough shooting, but quickly turned it around. He then went on many runs of his own and looked every bit like the MVP when Curry is on one of his crazy rolls. Klay has been fighting and showing up every game this series and almost single-handedly brought them back in game 4 but the hole was too deep to dig out of. Today, the Warriors didn't let the Thunder run away. Thunder always led by 5 to 13 points and it seemed like the dubs can't close in and take the lead. Klay kept shooting and shooting for a playoff record 11 threes. Some of them where from Curry range and most of them were contested and almost all of them featured his ridiculously quick release. I was amazed more by his courage than his accuracy. He took some shots with this record-breaking season hanging in a balance and with the entire world watching. He just rose up and kept making treys.
Klay's shot from way out there at the top with less than 5 mins to go with the dubs trailing 96-89 and the other 3 from the wing to un-tie the game and give the dubs the lead with 1:35 to go after a Iguodala steal were both season-saving treys. KD and Russ are getting killed tonight for playing "hero ball" as they had a tough shooting night and OKC also collapsed at the end. This finish was part Thunder's ineptitude and part dubs' brilliance. But Klay kept the dubs in the game all night and Curry joined him at the end to kick off the splash show. The rest of the team D'ed up with key contributions as always from Andre Iguodala on both ends of the floor. The thing that makes Klay the best shooting guard in the league is his defense in addition to his marksmanship. The guy is relentless and is never tired. He chases the best wing player on the other team at one end and constantly moves without the ball on offense with no sign of ever tiring. Sure, the attention Curry attracts on offense helps him, but on nights like these, the reverse is true too. Klay is one of the best shooters in the history of the game, but just the second best shooter in his own team. So it's easy to overlook him. I am glad he is finally getting the props he deserves as many talking heads like Marc Stein and the Chuckster are starting to call him the best 2-way 2 guard in the league. James Harden can score at will, but he also gives up half of those at the other end with no effort. Klay is way more of a complete player at that shooting guard spot. Tonight, he got the dubs that coveted game 7 at home. Now they have to finish the job. It's not going to be easy as Durant and Westbrook fear no one and slow down for nobody. But I expect the dub nation to close it out at home.
Ex-Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich gave us this memorable quote during their second championship run - "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!" Warriors seem to be adding to that legend. Game 6 was a question mark. Klay made it an exclamation point with a signature, breakout playoff performance to the tune of 41 points. Game 7 can't be this hard for the Warriors if they keep their calm. Can't wait!
4 comments:
I like your blog post headlines. You should sell them to ESPN! :-)
You summed it up pretty well. Klay Thompson, good ball movement, good defense (by Iguodala and others) got the Dubs a win that preserves the historical significance of their season should they go on to win the NBA title (and not be mentioned in the same breath as the 18-1 Pats). They never seemed to panic being down 3-1 which suggests that they have good leadership on the floor and a level-headed coaching staff.
OKC played well but Golden State was just better and this is what separates the NBA from March Madness and the NFL in that the better team in any match-up usually comes out on top.
Looking forward to a just-as-exciting NBA Finals featuring a "predictable" rematch between the Cavs and the Warriors!
It's a good point about the "predictable" part :-) Isn't it funny that we went through all this to get to the Cavs-Warriros finals we all expected on Nov 1st, 2015 :-)
By the way, I might have heard "Trey Thompson" somewhere else first. But after game 3, I titled my post "Drub Nation" and that was SJ Merc's headline after game 4 :-)
They're stealing your ideas!! ;-)
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