These playoffs have been pretty incredible. Not as much on the court, where the first round was something close to a stinker and the Cleveland Cavaliers have had next to zero threat on their way to the brink of the East (Toronto tie the series at 2-2 then get absolutely pasted in the fifth).

But if, like The Niche Cache, you’ve been watching the playoffs with one eye on the Thunder and their kiwi centre then it has been a smorgasbord of magnificence. Basically every game he’s had some significant influence, from the buzzed-out would-be game-winner against the Mavs to that late-game defensive play against the Spurs to the kicks in the nuts against the Warriors and all things in between. Yes, like that touchdown pass to Andre Roberson last time. Maaaate:

Steven Adams has been the breakout star of the NBA Playoffs, with all due respect to Bismack Biyombo – as well as Adams’ teammates Dion Waiters, Andre Roberson and Enes Kanter – well… here, let Mashable say it best:

“The breakout star of the NBA Playoffs is a seven-foot Kiwi who hails from a town that smells like farts and has a sister who's twice won Olympic gold in the shot put.”

In fact those kinds of articles are littered all over the internet now. Along with the Mashable one, there were similar claims on USA Today, BBC Sport and more or less every NBA blog out there. Even L'Equipe in France was getting down to pray at the altar – and they were cool enough to link an old favourite TNC article in there too, the champs:

“Propulsé sur le devant de la scène avec l'Oklahoma City Thunder, le néo-zélandais Steven Adams est un personnage atypique dans la ligue américaine. De son look unique à ses punchlines décapantes, découvrez les différentes facettes de ce joueur qui à 22 ans plaît beaucoup à la NBA.”

Couldn’t have written it better ourselves. But the person whose opinion most matters is his coach Billy Donovan, take it away bro:

Billy Donovan: “Steven's just a team guy. He's been that way since I got here. He's gotten better, he's improved, he's grown. I think he's really, really focused and concentrated on trying to do his job to the best of his ability, and I think he does his job out of great care for the guys in the locker room. He wants to, because of how much of a team guy he is, he wants to do well, not only for himself, but he wants to do well for his teammates.”

Over on SB Nation, Tim Cato went a step further with ‘The Steven Adams Encyclopedia, Mate’. Best of all was that it included a brief selection of Kiwi Steve using the word “mate” in interviews. Yes, please.

Speaking of interviews, one last little highlight before we get into game five, it’s Steven Adams’ injury checklist. Is this broken? Is that broken? Nah, good to go then.

BOX SCORE

at GSW (L 120-111): 31 MINS, 8 PTS (4/6 FG, 0/1 FT), 10 REB, 1 AST, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 3 PF

GAME FIVE

The Thunder may have come into this game a single win away from the Finals but the Warriors weren’t going away without one hell of a fight. Their crowd was as loud as any, defying their guys not to lift with their season on the line. Harrison Barnes responded with a three straight away.

Kevin Durant responded a few possessions later to get OKC on the board but after a couple Andre Roberson offensive boards (the second collecting his own missed floater), Dre swung to the corner and drove the ball hard to the basket as it came back his way, a big dunk but waved off for an offensive foul on Steven Adams down low. Roberson responded with a three pointer soon after but Adams picked up a second foul and he was sitting down with only 2:06 minutes of game time spent.

Incredibly the Thunder picked up seven fouls before the Warriors were called for one. No sooner had Adams checked out than Andrew Bogut was going up for an uncontested alley-oop. Still, even with a disrupted rotation and in a difficult arena, it was probably not such a bad thing to only trail 25-21 after the first quarter – the Warriors still waiting to hit that lights-out shooting zone.

Of all people it was Mo Speights and Anthony Morrow that came in and made buckets for their teams as each side matched each other blow for blow. And then Adams returned to the game…

His second offensive input was a lovely finish through contact to draw the foul, taking advantage of a fine pass from Russell Westbrook (who had started 1/10 FG). Steve missed the free throw, taking his series total to 18/26 – which is even better considering he missed his first three. Not bad for a dude that was getting hacked earlier in the season.

Ah, but then Steph Curry came in and started being Steph Curry, sparking a quick little 7-0 run all of his making to give the Dubs a bit of room with a 47-39 lead, OKC timeout. Exactly the crowd-raising streak that the Thunder had done so well to avoid until then.

By half time it was 58-50. The Thunder had 8 offensive boards but they were getting dominated in the paint and a lot of that will have been down to Adams only playing 9 minutes (it’s nice to be able to play up his impact without exaggerating nowadays). Durant and Westbrook certainly needed to raise from 10/29 combined but they did have 28 points between them at least. Klay Thompson led all scorers at the break with 16. Seeing Andrew Bogut make a late run at that Australasian Championship Belt was a surprise too, but he had 10 points and 8 boards at the break, taking advantage of Steve’s lessened appearance. Kiwi Steve had 4p & 5r in comparison.

Steve Kerr praised his lads for their first half but challenged them to do it all again. Instead the half began with Serge Ibaka making buckets and closing the gap to just a single point – more like… Surge… Ibaka, amiright? Sorry. Anyway, Draymond Green picked up a technical in the midst but he came up with a strong block on Adams soon after. By the way, there’s a difference between flagrants and techs so that won’t mean a suspension for Dray.

Meanwhile Steph Curry and Klay Thompson did a few things. As well as Bogie and Draymond:

Oh, and, ah… poor Roberson:

But a bit of Steve under the rim and some unstoppable Russ had the Thunder right there with them. Westbrook hit a three that briefly put them up 68-67 before the Dubs scored the next five points. A shout out to how good Dion Waiters has been too. He has always been a skilled ball handler but his Cleveland career and early OKC career was blighted by missed layups and sloppy pull-up twos, just bad decisions. He has been kinda superb these playoffs though, finally ironing his game out to where people once thought it should be. How about this magic?

So many of the third quarters this series have been definitive as teams pull away. Westbrook, Durant and Thompson have all had huge efforts in the third frames (although KT’s was in an eventual loss). But this time it was a close one and at 81-77 GSW after 3Q, we were heading for a thrilling fourth in what had been a thrilling game. Durant with 26, Russ 20 and Thommo with 20, Curry 19.

In a typically physical encounter, the Warriors were still annihilating OKC in the paint. More than double the paint points at this stage, even with Adams playing big minutes in the third it wasn’t really changing. He took a number of hits, as per usual. There was throw called from Shaun Livingston in a tangling box out (though his swinging elbow as he fell was not at all good, might be lucky to avoid a slap on the wrist for that), while regular knocks to the face in the pick and roll went unnoticed too (as they should, nobody's complaining, least of all Steve). Klay Thompson copped him with a stray hand in the third. Anyway, the Warriors didn’t put out any of their All Stars to start the fourth and they still shot out on an 8-0 run.

Westbrook started to get towards his best again but the Warriors extended. Livingston a tough shot, Speights punishing them in close. A three point play from the man known as Mo Buckets made it 96-83 for the biggest lead of the game. Ibaka and Thompson traded threes. Five minutes left and the Warriors were up by 10. Durant then hit 30 with a couple of free throws.

Another Warriors turnover allowed OKC to hit ‘em hard on the break and Durant sunk a triple, eight straight for the Thunder until Curry went and-one with a drive to the hoop. The game took on a frenetic pace as both teams hustled for loose balls and hurried for good shots against top defence. Golden State love a bit of that and Kerr went small to try and close this out the Death Lineup emerging with 2:28 remaining. Billy Donovan held firm with his starters but was Roberson fouled out and Curry and Thompson did their bit from the line.

OKC kept pushing though, Barnes fouling Durant mindlessly on a three. He made all of them to take his total to 40 before Curry was mobbed by three guys taking the ball over halfway. Westbrook tipped it clean and Adams grabbed it, next thing Russ was at the line for a three-point opp. He missed but got his own board, however Durant missed his shot from deep – a shot that would have closed it to a single possession. Instead Adams had to foul Curry, who made both FTs. Adams plucked another offensive board but with 15 seconds left Ibaka missed his euro-runner, Green made two free throws in response and while there was time for one last hit to the nose for Kiwi Steve, the horn sounded at 120-111 Warriors. Series extended at least one more game…

In the end, Curry scored 31 and Thompson 27. Draymond Green was significantly better here too, his best game of the series with 14 points and 13 rebounds, as well as 4 assists and 4 blocks. KD scored 40 and Westbrook 31, between them they shot 23 of 59 though. Worst of all, Andy Bogut’s 15p/14r outdid Adams’ 8p/10r as he cast his first blow in that Trans-Tasman battle. Look, Stevie’s gonna win that, but if Bogie’s doing that for the rest of this series then Steve’s Australasian Belt may come at the expense of the NBA Finals.

Billy Donovan: “One of the things that hurt our rhythm and flow a little bit was I thought Steven's two early fouls, taking him off the bench. But I think Steve being out there with Bogut around the basket, to your point, it does give us a chance to offensive rebound when we have a little bit of size. And I think with Steven off the floor at that point in time, I think we were small when we had to take him out of the game. But Bogut contributed, obviously, tonight to their team.”

Billy Donovan also with the sly dig: “The difference in the game was the fact that they went to the free throw line 34 times. To me, that was something that was very, very difficult to overcome.”

Hey but ultimately the Thunder still lead 3-2 and have an enviable chance to close out the NBA’s winningest ever team at home on Sunday, 1.00pm (NZT). Game seven, if required, will be same time on Tuesday.

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