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Road to the Championship: Golden State Warriors Clinch Trip to Finals

By Michael Shultz

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It took 40 years in the making, but on May 27th, 2015, it finally happened.

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The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets, 104-90, and clinched a trip to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975. The only thing that would have been sweeter is if the Warriors had beaten their arch-nemesis Los Angeles Clippers, but the Rockets were a good consolation prize.

It was earlier in the season when MVP runner-up, James Harden, said that the Warriors “ain’t even that good” before a matchup in late January. At the time, the Warriors were leading the Western Conference with 31-6 record -a pretty good record- and were ready for the Rockets that night in Houston.

The Warriors destroyed the Rockets 131-106 and Harden had his worst game of the season until the deciding fifth game in the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors would go on to sweep the season series from the Rockets and had immense confidence going into the Western Conference Finals clash.

The Warriors took Game 1 and Game 2 in tight contests. In Game 3, they blew out the Rockets in Houston in arguably the worst game of the season for the Rockets to go up 3-0, and seemed destined to sweep the series. The Rockets showed life in Game 4 as Harden went for 45 points as the Rockets extended the series, but what Warriors fans will remember most is Stephen Curry’s scary fall in the second quarter. Curry ended up landing on his head and back after being flipped in the air on a pump fake by Trevor Ariza. It could have been a disaster for the team but miraculously, he returned to action late in the third quarter and almost brought the Warriors back into the game.

This set up the deciding Game 5 and the Rockets were confident they could force a Game 6 back in Houston with a win. They felt they could have won both games earlier in the series and if they gave the same effort they brought in those games, they would win. But there would be no Game 6 because this night belonged to the Warriors and Roaracle.

Curry had his typical MVP performance, scoring 26 points, hitting huge threes, and igniting the rabid Roaracle crowd. Klay Thompson also had a great game before getting kneed in the head by Ariza, resulting ultimately in a concussion. Warriors fans expected performances from the big names, but it was role players that made this team an NBA champion. The Warriors would always have either Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston or Harrison Barnes step up when they needed them most and that night, it was Barnes’ turn.

When Thompson went out in the 4th quarter, the Warriors needed another scorer and Barnes responded in a big way. He scored the next nine points for the Warriors, including a rim-rattling slam to put the Warriors up 15, ensuring victory because the Warriors never lost up by that margin.

This was the moment where the team and fans started to believe that they were destined for the NBA Finals and a matchup with the best player in the world, LeBron James. The organization and the fan base both deserved this, because for so long, the Warriors were irrelevant and the laughing stock of the league, not even sniffing the postseason. Even though the Warriors were bad for countless years, their fan base would always make their presence known, making Oracle the loudest and most intimidating arena in the NBA. This win might have been even more important to the fan base than the players, as crazy as that may sound because the fan base had been through so many awful teams from the past.

This win also validated the Warriors season because if the team had not made the Finals, many pundits would have said this season was a failure. The players knew this and were not going to let this moment slip away. Reaching the NBA Finals is difficult and most players never accomplish this feat. It is only a select few that achieve this goal and even less actually are able to win an NBA championship. Leandro Barbosa waited 11 years, Iguodala waited 10 years, Livingston, Andrew Bogut and David Lee waited 9 years to reach this level, all of whom made sacrifices for the good of the team.

Chances are that we will see this team again in this situation because their stars are young, the veterans are willing to sacrifice and the fan base will never lose their enthusiasm – a perfect combination for a championship franchise.

Next: Road to the Championship: Warriors Stifle Harden

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