Kiwi Steve in the NBA – Western Conference Finals, Game 7
BOX SCORE
at GSW, G7 (L 96-88):
26 MINS, 9 PTS (4/11 FG, 1/2 FG), 9 REB, 1 AST, 1 TO, 2 PF
GAME SEVEN
Game seven, the best two words in US Sports, so they like to say. After a thrilling series to date, it all came down to this one game, these four quarters, and while the Golden State Warriors may have shattered records with their 73 wins this season, all it counted for here was home-court. Granted… that’s pretty massive.
Game six GSW changed things with Andre Iguodala playing with the starters to begin the second half, a major switcharoo as far as coaching machinations go. ESPN’s Zach Lowe wrote about the possibility of that becoming the norm in this do-or-die clash:
“On offense, Iguodala's secondary ball-handling is probably more important against Oklahoma City than Barnes' 3-point shooting. When the Thunder strangle a possession by switching everything, Iguodala is better equipped to create something from nothing off the bounce. He's in another universe as a passer; Barnes has missed several wide-open shots in this series.”
As it happened… he did start. That’s exactly what happened. Barnes to the bench for Iguodala’s particular skill-set and the challenge had been thrown down by Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
This pass is a pretty good example of why he started, tbh:
Also, here are some lovely words from Lowe on Adams, from that G7 preview piece:
“Adams has been sensational for Oklahoma City the entire playoffs, tailor-made by the basketball gods to slip into the void and gobble up offensive rebounds when defenses overload on the Thunder stars. When Durant has his pocket-pass game on, Adams is a legit pick-and-roll threat. Golden State's centers have to scurry around the 3-point arc to quash Durant's off-the-bounce triple, and if Durant looks for it early, he can find little creases to spring Adams.”
Whenever the Thunder lose there’s always a vocal group of critics complaining that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook need to get their teammates involved more and while that’s always a cop out argument – like, who would you rather shoot? – there was a noticeable trend early where KD & Russ certainly seemed to be making a concerted effort to give their bros a go. Probably having Iggy in there defending encouraged that, Roberson took the first field goal from the corner and Adams had three missed shots early on before Robby tipped one in and Adams was able to finish his fourth FG. All this before either of the stars had even taken a shot.
In fact Westbrook didn’t pop one until over four minutes into the game and when the first timeout came at 11-10 to OKC and halfway through the quarter, Durant still hadn’t a single attempt.
But, ah, when he did shoot one he counted it for three. Bloody hell he did. There was a beauty of a fadeaway soon after. Meanwhile Adams and Bogut were getting hyper physical to the point of dirtiness. Let ‘em play, ref, we’ll sort this out on the cricket pitch later. The good news is that there were no early phantom fouls on Steve as was the case last time they played in Cali. Just the one fair ‘nuff foul.
Anyway, Kanter came in for the last few minutes of the half and pulled in a few cheeky rebounds – though he missed a field goal he ought to have made. After all that patience, Durant was 3/3 for 7 points at the end of the quarter, though Roberson was back to his regular season shooting self with 1/5 FG… but the dude plays wicked defence, no doubt about that… which puts this in even more context:
The Thunder only shot 35.7% but they did make three threes which was a problem last game. As for the Dubs, well Klay Thompson was 0/4, shooting blanks as his team weren’t lobbing them any better at 34.8%. This was an opening quarter built upon defence and OKC got the best of that with a 24-19 lead.
The second quarter the Thunder left Kanter out there for an extended period and for good reason, as the Warriors looked to rest Curry only to get sort burnt while they did. The MVP was quickly back in but OKC managed to push it to an 11-3 run to begin the 2Q, Kanter making bank with 8 of those points. Steve came in just in time to see the score hit 35-22 – up 13 points, that happened to equal their biggest lead in game six; it’s also the amount of bench points they got in G6. Out of the timeout Draymond missed a three as the shot clock expired… not ideal. But Klay managed to strike one from deep next possie and then another soon after, definitely not a guy that Billy Donovan wanted to see get hot.
With the crowd starting to fire back up, Westbrook was out there flopping and flailing all over the place, to varying success. Thompson then made another three and the lead was down to four. Incredible that a guy can miss seven in a row to start and all he really needed was that one to go down and he’s in heat check mode.
Adams finished one off the bounce pass for his third bucket before he and Draymond Green got tangled up. Both boxing out, it seemed to the naked eye that Green hooked Adams’ arm and the two fell over with Adams landing on top of him and Dray staying down hurt for a bit. Almost got dropped in a headlock… except that it was Green that had him locked in. There was no call on the play but the refs stopped the game for Green to recover himself and they looked at the screens for a potential “hostile act”. The crowd chanted “throw him out!” but the call was a double foul, one on each dude. Bit weird, if anything they should’ve just left it.
At least it was all enough to take the heat out of the Warriors for a bit. Klay shot his fourth triple, this time over Adams and Green was able to tie up Steve for a jump ball, however right at the end of the quarter Serge Ibaka somehow managed to block a Curry layup and Westbrook pulled off a stunner of a finish at the rim from a dodgy pass, making the FT for a 48-42 half-time scoreline.
Of course, it was 48-42 and not 48-40 because Curry still found the time to do this as the half expired:
Such a fierce half of basketball, the Thunder were outplaying them, especially on defence, and yet the Warriors can simply make shots. Their ability to hit and get on runs like that means that even a six-point lead at the break feels imperiously fragile. Still, having kept the Warriors to their lowest 1H points total of the postseason is surely something.
Charles Barkley: “That boy Steven Adams is real… He is going to be a star in this league, he’s tough too.”
Curry had 12 points, 5/11 and Thompson 13, 4/11. On the other hand, Durant had 9 pts from his 4/5 shooting and Westbrook had his fingerprints on most things with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. Kiwi Steve with 7p/6r. Perhaps the major difference was a 10-1 Thunder bossing in second chance points, to go with their 10 off-boards that half. As has been the case all series, when the Thunder boss the boards, they win.
The second chance efforts came hard and fast to start the third but the worry was that they weren’t making their shots. Steve missed a couple – as well as flipping in a little floater in between – but Ibaka missed a couple before Curry and Klay each made threes. 52-48.
KD with a toughie from the corner, Iggy with a big three for the Warriors’ 83rd of the series… whaddayaknow that’s a new NBA playoff record. 29 of them were from Klay Thompson, also a new record. Adams missed another shot and got switched onto Curry on the perimeter… yes, three pointers happened, game tied then another for the lead. Donovan quickly went small to combat.
When Livingston went and did this, suddenly the tide appeared to turn. The Thunder had already been simmering but things boiled over with a Durant brick of a three followed by some lazy transition defence and a pointless foul on the dunk. Not the way to win a decisive game and the six-point lead that the Warriors had here felt about triple the six-point lead that the Thunder held at the half.
Which gets worse when two more shots make it an 11-point lead. Somehow the Thunder had to find a way to escape this stretch without the Dubs getting unassailably in front. 71-60 after three quarters, time for Durant to get firing or else too late.
OKC did a few things. Ibaka finally hit a three after 14 consecutive misses for OKC to cap a 7-0 run which was duly aided by missed layups by Speights and Green. Except that Curry then drilled an impossible three over KD and a lead that had shrunk to three was back up to eight. Hey, until Kiwi Steve assisted Russ on a triple.
Steph and Kev traded shots. Following a terrible 12 point third quarter, the Thunder took only half the fourth to beat that total but it wasn’t gonna happen unless the Splash Bros missed a few shots. One here, one there and it was 82-77. So Klay made another three. As did Draymond.
The Thunder kept going though. They forced it as well as they possibly could and in getting a couple of lucky breaks on the defensive end (any missed GSW shot was starting to feel that way), Kevin Durant reminded everyone at the Oracle Arena that he is a former MVP himself with seven straight points all on his own. 82 seconds remaining in the season for one of these two superb teams and the Warriors were now only up by four points.
What happened was that Ibaka got caught going up and Curry won three FTAs. He made all three. Durant tried to hit a pull-up mid-ranger going the other way after going behind the back on his marker but it rimmed out and despite the best hustling efforts of Russell Westbrook, the ball ended up in Warrior hands. Had Harrison Barnes made his three then it might have been game over. But he didn’t, and Durant threw one up of his own from way downtown. It didn’t go. Steph Curry sunk the hell outta a three of his own and after being down 3-1 in the series the Warriors were now 20 seconds from advancing to the Finals once again, leading up 10 clear points. There was time for a few more free throws to close it to 96-88 but that was it. Curry took the ball over halfcourt and the clock ticked down as he roared with the crowd.
Curry scored a massive 36 points, Thompson 21 – between them they shot 13/23 from 3pt. Durant scored 27, Westbrook 19p/13a and Ibaka 16 points. It wasn’t enough. The season comes to an end for Kiwi Steve and company but bloody hell they gave it a good run.
Draymond Green on Steven Adams: “I told him congrats on a great season. I love what he brings to the table, you know I respect a guy who continues to play. We had our instances, nothing was on purpose, but he battled, I battled. I just told him I got mad respect and I love the way he battles. Since he came in the league he’s been playing the same way and you’ve gotta respect a guy like that.”
Q: Coach Donovan talked about the improvement made by some of your role players, Adams, Roberson. Are you guys encouraged moving forward with how they've come along in assisting you guys in getting to the next level?
Russell Westbrook: Very proud. Like Kevin said, those guys, man, they put in work every single day. Coming in early, staying here late, watching film, improving their games throughout the season, and you can't do nothing but be proud of those guys. Look forward to them coming back next year and being better.
