Curry’s 3rd quarter burst puts away OKC for series-tying blowout
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s surprising Western Conference Finals Game 1 victory on Monday stood out as an example of a team finding its best form at the right time, but it also found the history-making Golden State Warriors making uncharacteristic and frequently baffling mistakes. A team known for its late-game poise made a habit of taking bad shots and seemed intent on seeking out daggers even when down. It was far cry from what NBA fans saw over and over during their 73-win regular season and already in the playoffs, when the Warriors appeared only to improve during winning time.
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Game 2 played out far differently, enough so for the Warriors and their fans to hope that Game 1 will prove to be an outlier in this series. After going on a late run at the end of the first half to break a tie and build up a significant lead, the Warriors took over in the third quarter to create extensive fourth-quarter garbage time in a 118-91 win. OKC is still in a good position after a road split, but Golden State should enter Sunday’s Game 3 with confidence that they can continue to turn their tactical advantages into wins.
The identity of Wednesday’s biggest difference maker should not come as a surprise. Stephen Curry followed up his disappointing Game 1 with a suitably MVP-like performance in Game 2, scoring a team-high 28 points on 9-of-15 from the field, 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-5 from the line.
Remarkably, the majority of Curry’s scoring came during a 15-2 that didn’t even last two minutes. Mind you, that wasn’t just a 15-2 Warriors run — Curry scored all 15 points.
That patented Curry burst put OKC away for good. Up 64-57 after an Andre Roberson lay-up with 7:22 remaining in the period, Curry’s overwhelming display put Golden State up by 20 and, perhaps most importantly for the rest of the series, made the previously stout Thunder defense look confused and porous.
Naturally, the game-shifting run started with the ball movement and sound play-calling that the Warriors lacked in the second half of Game 1. Curry started his scoring run (and ended a scoreless stretch that went back to the first quarter) on an exceedingly well-run play that got him a wide-open triple from the left wing. From there, the Thunder began to crack increasingly often, with Curry dicing up players off the ball and off the dribble in favorable matchups. The Warriors were clearly focused on finding the open man and married that ball movement to the risk-taking playmaking that has given them one of the most explosive offenses in NBA history.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
