Warriors are crumbling
The NBA playoffs are here. The games are tighter, the lights are brighter, and the narratives are getting thick. It can be a lot to keep up with but don’t worry we’re here to help. Throughout the NBA postseason, FanSided will be gathering together some of the most talented writers from our network for a daily recap of our favorite stories from the night before.
Welcome to The Rotation.
In a world…
Ian Levy | @HickoryHigh | FanSided
Things feel a little different this morning. Off-kilter. As though the entire universe has slid, ever so slightly, out of alignment. The basic laws of physics still seem to hold — I burned my hand with hot coffee, that pen still plummeted to the floor when I accidentally bumped it off the counter. The trees outside my house are in all the same places, the birds are singing their same old songs, the light is coming through the window at the same angle it always does this time of day (clouds permitting).
But this is not the same universe I existed in yesterday, because the Golden State Warriors have come undone.
With a chance to redeem an enormous blowout loss in Game 3, a chance to regain control of their destiny, the Warriors came out and laid another egg — losing Game 4 to the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-94. It is not just that the Thunder won, again, it is the way they have been utterly thrashing the Warriors, absorbing their swagger like some dementor’s kiss, melting the best regular season team in league history into a puddle of sticky discoloration on the sidewalk.
The magic of the Warriors this season was their cloak of inevitability, no lead was safe against their attack. If they let their attention waver long enough for you to get in front, chances are it wouldn’t last long. Golden State didn’t lose consecutive games all season. They’ve now lost three of their last four, by a combined 58 points.
The Warriors are not quite finished yet. They’ll need to win three in a row to avoid elimination and perhaps no team in the history of the league is better equipped for such a challenge. But they are no longer the 73-win Warriors. They have been shaken, battered, eroded. Whatever psychological currency they earned with those 73 wins has been cashed out. The Warriors are underdogs, under pressure, needing to build themselves back up from scratch.
In a world where the Warriors can be dismantled, I’m really not sure what else we can trust.
The Riddle of Russ
Cody Williams | @TheSizzle20 | Lake Show Life, FanSided
Who among us hasn’t watched Russell Westbrook at one point or another and been floored by what the man is capable of? It’s more than just the way he attacks the rim like Inigo Montoya looking for revenge on Count Rugen; it’s his wholly unpredictable ability to get to a level that few before him have and that arguably none of his peers are able to now.
To say that Russ was a juggernaut for most of the Thunder’s convincing Game 4 victory over the Warriors almost wouldn’t suffice to capture the experience of watching him. Clearly he was productive in putting up his triple-double, but it was one of those efforts where the production seems both paradoxically quiet and deafening at once. Just as you were asking yourself when he racked up the nine assists in the first half that he did and how he got to 18 points save for a few big shots, he was answering a Stephen Curry three with one of his own at a crucial juncture just before halftime.
What’s so difficult to quantify about Westbrook in outings like Game 4 is just how untouchable he can be when he’s on the basketball court. For moments and stretches, Russ can get to a place of hoops nirvana—his nirvana just happens to be violent both in terms of aggression and the carnage left in his wake.
If you took certain 2-5 minute stretches of Westbrook when he’s in this place and showed them to someone who didn’t watch the NBA regularly, they’d walk away telling you that Russ is the best player in the league. His performance and passion can be that stunning when he gets to that place and, for at least those stretches, saying that he’s the best in the NBA wouldn’t be wrong.
Of course, we can’t forget that he only ever reaches that level in flashes notable for their brevity. The majority of Game 4 may have been a prolonged flash, one longer than most, but there’s now just as equal of a chance that Westbrook could come onto the floor in Game 5 with an over-inflated sense of confidence and overfueled level of aggression and play detrimentally to the Thunder. Even when he’s in the zone, even when there are huge stakes at play, which level of Westbrook is going to show up remains a mystery until after tip-off.
Does that make Russ even more special that he has such a variance in the type of player that he can be or does it simply make him frustrating? I’m not sure.
Perhaps the best approach though would be to watch Russ when he reaches that peak performance like he did in Game 4 like you would a shooting star, a lunar eclipse, or an empty waiting room at the DMV; just look at with wonderment and awe while it lasts and don’t be surprised when it leaves in an instant.
Stephen Curry recedes for the Warriors
John Buhler | @buhler118 | FanSided
After getting blown out on the road in Game 3, it only made sense that we would see a valiant effort in Game 4 from the Golden State Warriors down two games to one to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals. Instead of that respectable, bounce-back effort from Golden States, we had to endure another lackluster, uninspired performance from the Warriors, as they fell 118-94 to the Thunder.
With power forward Draymond Green playing on edge, knowing that one more technical or flagrant foul would cost him a game in this series after his groin-kicking incident with center Steven Adams in Game 3, it was up to two-time reigning league MVP point guard Stephen Curry to carry Golden State in this crucial Game 4.
Not only did Curry not deliver for the Warriors in their crushing loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, his laissez-faire and disengaged attitude in Game 4 may have cost the Warriors their shot at back-to-back NBA Championships.
Curry played more minutes than anybody on Golden State (39:00), but didn’t exactly make the most of his court time. The league’s most lethal shooter had a miserable day from the field (6-20) and an appalling one from beyond the arc (2-10). Even the cocksure free throw shooter missed a pair from the charity stripe (5-7 at the line).
While he did hold his own on the glass (five boards) and distributed the basketball decently (five assists), Curry was again careless with the rock in tying Green for a game-worst six turnovers.
This was the first game since Game 4 versus the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals, also down two games to one on the road, that Golden State has faced any real adversity on the court.
While shooting guard Klay Thompson did everything in his power to lift Golden State with his fantastic third quarter, it wasn’t enough to combat Curry retreating into his obvious frustrations in this game.
To be fair, Curry isn’t at 100 percent physically after his two leg injuries in the first round against the Houston Rockets, so this could be a reason behind his lackadaisical effort in these two games in Oklahoma City. He’s also been manhandled off the ball by the Thunder’s defense, struggling to find the open space he’s been accustomed too. He’s also drawn the primary assignment for defending human cannonball Russell Westbrook.
However in the face of immense adversity, MVPs and champions rise to the occasion to elevate their team out of certain doom. Having to battle Westbrook is a frustrating endeavor every night in its own right, but Curry seemed to want no part in matching Westbrook’s intensity.
It’s been a challenging series for the Warriors, as Oklahoma City’s strengths in rebounding, getting to the free throw line, and improved transition defense have tormented Golden State. While we didn’t see Curry elevate his team like he has so many times in the last two years, we may have seen the end of one of the best regular season teams in history. Perhaps it’s time to start preparing for a new coronation in the NBA.