OAKLAND – For the first 23 minutes of play on Wednesday night, it looked like Game 2 was headed the direction Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals went. In the 24th minute, it all changed.
An 8-0 run by the Warriors to close out the first half over the final 86 seconds of play knocked the Thunder back, and Golden State took all the momentum heading into halftime. Out of the break, Stephen Curry scored 17 points in the third quarter alone after not registering a point in the second quarter, and the Warriors dominated play as the Thunder fell 118-91. This Western Conference Finals series is now tied 1-1 heading back to Oklahoma City for Game 3 on Sunday.
“We were in pretty good shape there going into the half and they kind of hit us with that flurry,” Head Coach Billy Donovan said. “We got down by eight and we did not get off to a great start in the third quarter.”
“The important thing right now is you can get caught up in a lot of different emotional things that go on,” Donovan added. “The truth and reality right now is the series is 1-1.”
Although the Golden State Warriors built a lead in the high single digits early on, the Thunder rallied back to take a one-point lead, it’s only lead of the game, on a Dion Waiters three with 1:59 to go in the first half. The Warriors’ Andre Iguodala was fouled behind the three-point line on the next play and made all three shots, but Russell Westbrook responded by hitting Kevin Durant on a backdoor alley-oop.
It was tied 49-49 when Draymond Green hit Festus Ezeli for a layup, then after a missed Dion Waiters layup, Klay Thompson hit a long two on a shimmy shake out top. Westbrook turned it over on the next play, leading to an absurd transition layup by Iguodala, who double-pumped before spinning the ball in off the glass without looking. Westbrook tried to get a two-for-one by shooting a three with 30.5 seconds left, but Green found Iguodala for an alley-oop and Westbrook’s three at the buzzer missed as well.
“They do a good job of closing quarters,” Westbrook said. “We've got to do a better job of running our stuff towards the end of the quarters and taking care of the basketball.”
That sequence heading into halftime was rough for the Thunder, and spelled trouble from a momentum standpoint in the second half, but there were some problem areas that Donovan’s team must clean up throughout the course of the game moving forward. In the first half, turnovers once again hurt the Thunder badly, as it gave the ball away nine times over the first two quarters and 16 times for 23 points in the game.
The other major factor was, surprisingly, offensive rebounds allowed by the Thunder. Such a strength for Donovan’s club on the other end of the floor, the Warriors flipped the script by taking advantage of second chance points by racking up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half alone. For the night, the Warriors scored 15 points after cleaning up their own misses.
“Give them credit because I really thought their activity on both ends of the floor was really, really good tonight. It was better than our activity,” Donovan said.
Game 2 Thunder Highlights:
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Curry Flurry Breaks it Open
The momentum from the first half didn’t immediately carry over to the second in this one, but it only took about five minutes for it to kick in. Golden State led 64-57 with 7:23 to go after an Andre Roberson driving layup through contact, but after that Curry ripped off 15 straight points in a 15-2 run that was the knockout punch for the Thunder.
Along the perimeter, the Thunder has been switching just about every screening action in order to stay connected to Warriors shooters. Golden State has countered by having their players actually screen their own man on those pin-downs, leaving defenders guarding shooters like Curry and Thompson unable to close out due to trying to protect the paint a cut to the rim.
“Things are happening pretty quickly,” Donovan explained. “There are certain situations where you're going to get in a bind and you've got to communicate your way through those things. In Game 1 we did a pretty good job of doing that, and here tonight there were some times we let him get a little bit loose, and we've got to do a better job there staying attached and connected and trading him off when we need to trade him off.”
“It’s hard, period. The game is so fast,” guard Andre Roberson added. “You have to read and that one split second can mess you up and they can get the backdoor cut off of it. We have to come together, be more aware of when they’re doing and try to lock and trail the best we can.”
Curry took advantage of that on his first three, and that opened the flood gates. On the next possession Curry stole the ball from Durant and was later fouled on a three and hit all of his foul shots, in addition to a technical foul shot. Durant hit a long two, but Curry knocked down another three, then hit a step-back three in transition off a Thunder turnover. After a timeout Curry hit another 26-footer off the dribble, and the Warriors’ lead was 79-59 with 5:11 to go in the third quarter, took large of a lead for the Thunder to overcome with the time remaining.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By the Numbers
14-for-19 – Free throw shooting for the Thunder on the night, down from Game 1’s 22-for-32 night
29 – Points for Kevin Durant, a game-high, on 11-for-18 shooting, along with six rebounds
45-36 – The Warriors’ rebounding advantage on the night, including 15 Warriors offensive rebounds- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Last Word
“We've got to deal in the reality and the truth. The reality and the truth is okay, here are the things that went wrong. Here are the corrections we need to make. Here are the adjustments we need to make. Here's what we need to do and the series right now is 1-1. That's the truth right now coming out of it. So you leave here wishing we would have played better. But give them credit because they played exceptionally well.” – Head Coach Billy Donovan