Thunder can't find finishing touch in Game 5
OAKLAND, Calif. — With 3:57 remaining Thursday night in Game 5 of the West finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder had closed the gap, and you could feel the air draining out of Oracle Arena. It was a six-point game, and with the series on the edge, a feeling swept through the concourses that the Thunder were about to steal it.
But the Golden State Warriors got stops, the Thunder offense stalled, and Warriors guard Stephen Curry found just enough.
However, with 40 seconds left, Thunder guard Russell Westbrook was fouled as he scored to cut the lead to six again. He missed his free throw, got it back and fired to an open Kevin Durant for a 3. Front rim, and an opportunity to make it a one-possession game with 35 seconds left was lost.
Warriors 120, Thunder 111. Now it’s on to Game 6 in Oklahoma City on Saturday with the Thunder up 3-2.
Durant and Westbrook combined for 71 points but required 59 shots to get them. Durant scored 40 points on 12-of-31 shooting, and Westbrook scored 31 on 11-of-28 (plus seven rebounds and eight assists). The Thunder offense was disjointed through large portions of the game, struggling to finish in the paint in the face of Andrew Bogut‘s interior rim protection.
It didn’t help that the Thunder didn’t get much supplementary scoring, with Serge Ibaka‘s 13 points the next-highest number. Anthony Morrow hit a wild garbage-time 3 that gave him 10, but other than that, no other OKC player was in double figures. What’s made the Thunder so lethal has been their additional pieces, but Andre Roberson had six points and Enes Kanter one while Dion Waiters went scoreless.
The Thunder made their push in the fourth quarter, coming back from as many as 13, but what quietly cost them was the opening five minutes of the quarter. Warriors coach Steve Kerr rolled the dice with a lineup absent Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson to start the fourth, and it paid off. The Warriors outscored the Thunder 15-8 before Thompson checked back in.
At times, the Thunder seemed to lose composure, rushing through their offense and taking questionable shots. But despite a number of Warriors spurts, they hung tight enough to have a chance.
So … the big question: What does it mean as the series heads back to OKC? The Thunder are obviously licking their wounds a bit, but they also should feel somewhat encouraged. This was the kind of expected response from the defending champions on their home court, and still the Thunder pushed them to the brink. The Thunder didn’t play that well — Durant and Westbrook especially — but had their chances to execute down the stretch to punch a ticket to the NBA Finals. A couple of better possessions, a few stops, and the Thunder would have walked off the floor as winners.
Instead, they regroup for Saturday with quite a lot on the line. The Warriors need to walk into the building where they’ve lost in this series by a combined 52 points and force a Game 7 back home. The Thunder need to win to avoid it.
