The Warriors are facing elimination.
Let that sink in.
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It could be all be over in a couple days for Stephen Curry, the first unanimous MVP in NBA history, and the defending champs, who posted a league-record 73-9 regular-season mark, following a 118-94 defeat at the hands of the Thunder in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
Golden State has battled history and emerged victorious before. If any team could become the 10th to win a series after falling behind 3-1, it'd be the Warriors, led by lethal shooters Curry and Klay Thompson, who scored 19 straight points to start the third quarter Tuesday night. The series is far from over.
But unlike everything else in the 2015-16 season, this isn't about Golden State, not at this point. In the aftermath of the country behind-whooping the Thunder have put on the Warriors, who hadn't lost two games in row all season before now (the Dubs lost Game 3 by 28 points), it's about Oklahoma City.
It's time we consider what seemed unfathomable just a week ago — the Thunder might just might be the better team.
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While the Warriors were chasing the 1995-96 Bulls, and the Spurs were vying to become the first team to go undefeated at home for a full season, the Thunder quietly amassed a 55-27 regular-season record. Kevin Durant put up one of the most consistently excellent seasons ever while rekindling his chemistry with triple-double machine Russell Westbrook a season after OKC failed to qualify for the playoffs, due mostly to injuries to Durant.
Kevin Durant, foreground, and Russell Westbrook (Getty Images)
The Thunder played the Warriors close in the regular season; OKC led after three quarters in two of the three meetings. They tried to tell us what they were capable of back then, but hardly anyone was listening.
"Man, we're not scared of either one of those teams," Durant said of the Warriors and Spurs after an eight-point loss to Golden State on Feb. 6. "We're going to play our game. Nobody in this locker room is scared. We have to play them. If we want to get where we want to get to, we have to play them. We're not ducking anybody."
The Thunder's road to this point, to being a game away from reaching their first Finals since 2012, has been the roughest. They've won six of their last seven games against squads that went a combined 140-24 in the regular season.
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When they stole Game 2 from San Antonio to knot their West semifinal series 1-1, Westbrook said the Thunder couldn't be happy. "Happy teams get beat," he reasoned.
After dismantling the Spurs in six, including three consecutive wins to close the series, Durant said, "This is not our championship."
Even after doing the unthinkable, snatching home-court advantage away from the Warriors with a 112-106 victory to start the West finals on May 16, Westbrook wasn't impressed. It's hard to imagine his thoughts didn't drift back to the 2012 Finals when the Thunder captured Game 1, only to lose the next four to LeBron James and the Heat.
"We didn't play our best game, but we came out with a win," Westbrook said following Game 1 against the Warriors. Tuesday night, he torched the Warriors for 36 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
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There were few smiles or even smug grins on the faces of the Thunder upon walking off the court at Chesapeake Energy Arena, just obligatory business-like daps as they moved on to Game 5. Durant openly criticized his team's inability to get into its offensive sets quickly enough for his liking.
"This game is over," a monotone Westbrook said during the postgame news conference. "Now it's on to the next game, go in and try to find a way to get a win. It's the first team to four."
Who would've thought the Warriors could wind up being being a stepping stone to someone else's success?
The Thunder, that's who.