Written by Sam Amick at USAToday.com
If the Oklahoma City Thunder were going down like this, coughing up a 3-1 series lead to the defending champion Golden State Warriors after coming so close to making such an improbable run to the Finals, Kevin Durant wanted his hands all over the ending.
So he buried that three-pointer with 2:51 left, then hit those free throws he’d earned going to the rim, and pulled up over Klay Thompson on the right side for a jumper that left all of Oracle Arena fearing the worst.
One apparent choke job, it seemed, was about to lead to another. Their Warriors had led by 11 with 3:10 to go, when back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry had gone behind-the-back around Durant going right for a finger roll at the rim. But in a finish that was every bit as exhilarating as the Western Conference Finals themselves, the Warriors held on in a 96-88 win that earns them a rematch against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And Curry, in fitting form, finished the deal.
“I knew we were ready for the moment,” the Warriors’ two-time MVP said. “(I knew) we were a mature basketball team that tried our best not to listen to the noise when we were down 3-1. … In that locker room, the talk was positive.”
With 1:18 left, in a play that Thunder forward Serge Ibaka will surely regret from now until forever, he inexplicably fouled Curry on the left wing to give him three free throws and a 93-86 lead that relieved all sorts of Thunder pressure. After a Durant missed jumper, Curry would escape a chasing Andre Roberson to bury a three-pointer from the right wing with 26.8 seconds that all but ended it.
“There was opportunity for us to close the series out in 5 and 6 and 7,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I don’t know if that tells the full story of the seven games when you look at them in its entirety.”
The confetti fell as it had during every win in this building this season, but this was different.
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