Warriors’ championship spirit shines in Game 6 comeback win

Don’t try to kid yourself: you thought it was over too.

When Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were lighting it up and every loose ball and rebound went to the Thunder and it was a double-digit margin that kept staying that way, you thought the Warriors didn’t have it in them, that this season would end before the calendar flipped to June.

It didn’t feel like Game 3 or Game 4 in the sense that the Thunder dominated from the get-go and had the Warriors flustered and out of sorts. But it did seem like the Thunder were one big spurt away from sending the Warriors packing. At multiple points, the Thunder pushed the lead to 10 or 11 or 12, not insurmountable by any means, but difficult for a team to come back from on the road.

But the Warriors did just enough to hold the Thunder at bay and prevent them from putting the game away outright, and it was all Klay Thompson. With 41 points and an NBA playoff record 11 three-pointers, Thompson was practically the Warriors’ offense for much of the second half.

He brought back shades of his 37-point quarter against the Kings last season, hitting from everywhere, barely gripping the ball before releasing it. Two shots in the fourth quarter that preceded his go-ahead 3-pointer were particularly astounding. The first came with the Warriors down 89-81 with under nine minutes to play when he took a hand-off from Andrew Bogut from deep on the left side, turned and fired in one fluid motion — swish. The second came at the five-minute mark with the Warriors trailing by seven when Thompson received a pass from just outside the Thunder logo, said, “Screw it,” and launched it before Russell Westbrook could contest — splash.

Those threes didn’t bring the Warriors all the way back. But they kept the Thunder from extending their lead and the Warriors within striking distance. They set the stage for the highlight that will replayed for the ages, and it was such perfection in so many ways: Andre Iguodala stripping Westbrook clean, recovering the ball, dribbling and throwing a pass right to Thompson, who knocked down one of the purest clutch shots you will ever see in a do-or-die situation.

On the scoreboard, it was still just a 104-101 lead for the Warriors with over a minute to play, but it might as well have been a 20-point cushion; the Warriors managed to suck every last bit of life out of Chesapeake Energy Arena, silencing a once-boisterous crowd that was taunting Draymond Green and preparing to celebrate a trip to the NBA Finals.

Game 6 was a reminder that the Warriors are good. Scary good. They won a game in which they faced the following scenario:

Normal teams don’t win these games; heck, the way the Thunder have been playing all series, normal teams would have been swept out of Oklahoma City a week ago. The Thunder are playing incredible basketball. They have two of the best players in the world performing at a high level. They are clamping down defensively in swarm-like fashion, wining all the 50-50 balls, and getting contributions up and down the lineup. The Spurs, in all their wisdom and glory, couldn’t push it to a seventh game, and they had the defending champions, the 73-win, dynasty-anointed Warriors on the brink of disaster.

Until they didn’t. Until the Warriors realized they can turn the faucet on and play at just a high level as the Thunder. The last five minutes on Saturday night were a clinic of Warriors’ basketball. They outscored the Thunder 16-4, and while Steph and Klay lit it up, the Warriors held Durant and Westbrook scoreless and forced them to commit six turnovers. That’s exactly how you come back from a seven-point deficit on the road, with five minutes to play and the season on the line.

The Warriors have shown weaknesses in this series, and to the Thunder’s credit, they have taken advantage. But, championship teams (especially this one) don’t know how to lose. They don’t know when they’re supposed to be done, and they don’t just roll over when push comes to shove. They make you beat them — not the other way around — and, even with the odds stacked against them, they will fight and push and dig and claw until the tank is empty.

The Thunder had the Warriors down for the count on Saturday. But then Westbrook and Durant decided to mess around while the Warriors calmly got up and punched back with a barrage of splishes and splashes that adds to their legacy as a team that will go down in history.

Now, the Warriors have the Thunder on the ropes, and the series might as well be over, if you think the Warriors can conceivably let this one slip away at home in Game 7. Golden State has once again proven that the near-impossible is, indeed, very possible, staring a 3-1 deficit — in a series in which they had been thoroughly dominated — right in the eye, laughing at it, and blowing it away with an uppercut, followed by a roundhouse kick.

I feel for the doubters, who thought they were finally witnessing the demise of the Warriors, only to see them tack on one more accolade to their burgeoning list of accomplishments. The hardest part is over with, the path to return to the Finals clear as day. Let’s have some fun on Monday.