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.
118 Seconds
Ian Levy | @HickoryHigh | FanSided
It was the blowout we knew was coming. The Golden State Warriors haven’t lost two in a row all season long and after dropping a tight one to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1, there were statements to be made. Midway through the third quarter, with the game still reasonably close, Stephen Curry stepped up to the three-point line and read his prepared remarks.
Over the next 118 seconds Curry scored 15 consecutive points, interrupted by a lone Kevin Durant jumper. When he was done, the lead had ballooned from 7 to 20, and Game 2 was essentially over. It was knockout combination, a flurry of jabs and uppercuts that included three three-pointers and another three from the free throw line. For reference, if Curry could have maintained that scoring pace across his 34.3 regular season minutes per game he would have averaged roughly 260 points per game.
Both of these teams worship at the altar of spurtability, that mystical power to control space and time and cram a soul-crushing quantity of points into the narrowest of chronological windows. No one does it quite like Curry though. The quickness of his release and the way his jumper transcends space and distance allows him to warp time in ways that would make Einstein’s hair stand on end (you know, more than it already did). I’m not even sure I could tie both my shoes in 118 seconds, and that’s all Stephen Curry needed to change the complexion of the Western Conference Finals.
118 seconds to glory.
Snow Globe: Andre Iguodala’s Whimsy
Daniel Rowell | @DanielJRowell | Hardwood Paroxysm
With 45 seconds remaining in the first half of Game 2, the Warriors leading 53-49 against the Thunder, Andre Iguodala tipped a lobbed pass to the rim from Russell Westbrook, intended for Kevin Durant. He redirected the pass to Draymond Green, who led his team for a fastbreak. First, a half court pass to Curry, now two-on-one with Klay Thompson breaking to the far corner for a three and Westbrook at the top of the key to try and stop it, the remaining Thunder and Warriors running just behind. A cross-court pass to Thompson was tipped back out by Westbrook, but recovered by Iguodala. What happened next is difficult to describe.
With one dribble, Iguodala took off along the far edge of the paint towards the rim. Westbrook again attempted to disrupt the play, leaping at Iguodala for a block, but missed as Iguodala twisted back away from Westbrook, shielding the ball behind him. Still in flight, but with his layup displaced by Westbrook, he brought the ball to his hip with just enough time to get a shot up. He spun an underhanded layup back out from his waist towards the glass, but away from the rim. The ball lands on the backboard, well outside the rectangle, and like a chip-shot, breaks back towards the net and in. Swish, and one.
Andre Iguodala lands on one foot like he’s just landed a triple lutz, before tumbling beneath the basket. Watching at home, I couldn’t help but ask out loud, “how on this Earth did that go in?” How would you even describe it? Did Kerr sweet talk the laws of physics and buy the Warriors leniency when it comes to gravity? I’ve watched the clip dozens of time, shaking it like a snowglobe again, and again. From a tipped pass on one end to a reversed… underhand… layup (?), Iguodala was like a rogue wave bearing down the court that could not be stopped. Except that analogy doesn’t capture the finesse he needed to contort his torso and get off the shot. It was like he did the Shmoney Dance, then twisted into the Quan, all mid-leap, with a basketball, and then yo-yoed in a no-look underhand layup.
The glitches on NBA2K can’t even do that. And look how far away from the basket he lays the shot on the glass. Westbrook broke up the fastbreak twice, forcing Iguodala into a midair game of Twister, and as the ball spins back into the net, Adams, Waiters, and Durant are all standing in disbelief, looking for the giant magnet or fishing line under the rim that pulls the ball back. And to top it all off, on Andre Iguodala’s ensuing free throw – an uncontested, please take your time shot – he missed. The ball doesn’t lie, but I don’t think it even knew what to do after that layup.
On the next possession, Iguodala was fed a bounce pass off a roll to the basket for a dunk. It capped an 8-0 run in just 40 seconds to close the first half, four points in that run from the Warrior’s sixth man, Andre Iguodala. Game 2 wound up being a 27-point blowout. I guess that can be expected when the first man off the bench is miming the contortions needed to break into a bank vault in mid-air. We’ve read all year about the lineup of death and his great perimeter defense. These things are all true, and were on full display tonight. But I don’t really know what to say about this play, let alone how to describe it. It’s really good. It’s the kind of hustle and effort that you sometimes see on Warriors fast breaks despite the chaos and turnovers that just continues to push downstream and inevitably scores. But that doesn’t do this justice. Just sit with this play for a bit, hold this Vine in your hands like a snow globe, give it a shake, and let Iguodala’s whimsy wash over you.
Surviving the surge
Philip Rossman-Reich | @omagicdaily | Orlando Magic Daily, Hardwood Paroxysm
The Oklahoma City Thunder trailed by 14 points in the third quarter. The game was seemingly slipping away. The Golden State Warriors were in their surge.
The plan for Billy Donovan’s Thunder team was simple: Survive.
In Game 1, the Thunder were able to do just that. The Warriors began to pull away and the Thunder stayed in contact. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook suddenly found their touch and the Warriors cooled off. Slowly but surely, the lead dissipated. And as Golden State waited for the final surge that would not come, Oklahoma City stole home court.
The Thunder again had to survive. And that is literally all you can do against when Stephen Curry gets cooking and the Warriors go on their run. And sometimes that run is simply just Stephen Curry, who recovered from shooting 9 for 22 in Game 1 to score 28 points on 9-for-15 shooting. More than half of those points came on a solo 15-2 run from Curry in the fourth quarter.
The lead ballooned. And kept getting bigger. The Thunder could not keep up and Game 2 was decided in that moment as Curry pulled up for three-pointer after three-pointer after three-pointer. Well, that last one was a long two with his foot on the line in transition.
Those are the kind of runs few teams can survive. Sometimes the Thunder can when they get their offense going right back. Most of the time though? Most of the time, the Warriors can be too overwhelming.
Curry’s three-pointers juice up the crowd. It gets Draymond Green bobbing his head a little bit more. It tightens up that defense. And, most of all, that offensive explosion puts pressure on any offense to keep up.
This is how Golden State has dominated opponents throughout the season. The Warriors are always one string of plays away from blowing any team out. Even this deep in the Playoffs.
What the Thunder did not do in Game 2 was stem the tide. Curry got rolling and put the Warriors up and the Thunder could not answer. Durant scored 23 of his 29 in the first half, he did not have his usual spurt in the second half as the Warriors buried the Thunder. Russell Westbrook scored 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting, even getting the ball poked away from him in transition by Draymond Green.
To take down the Warriors when they are going through their spurt, teams cannot make these mistakes. Or, maybe not mistakes, teams have to play nearly perfect.
That is the pressure Golden State puts on its opponents at all time. At any moment Curry can go off. Klay Thompson can go off. The offense can click with a barrage of cuts and pinpoint passes into and through the paint. They always seem to find the open shooter.
Survival is truly the word. And that is why the Thunder, despite having home court advantage are still seemingly fighting for control of the series. What are the odds Oklahoma City deftly withstands that killer run again? And even if the Thunder do, what guarantee is there that they finish it like they did in Game 1?
This is the problem playing Golden State. That surge is always one shot away.
Thunder are just alright (alright, alright)
Cody Williams | @TheSizzle20 | Lake Show Life, FanSided
There are many idiosyncratic aspects of the Oklahoma City Thunder that are seemingly juggled every time that they take the floor. Though supremely gifted, Russell Westbrook is an enigma. Meanwhile Dion Waiter is an enigma in that he thinks he’s as blessed as Westbrook with maybe half of the talent. Then there are the other pieces like Steven Adams and Serge Ibaka that create this whirlwind of unpredictability for Oklahoma City.
Looking at the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, it’s really been a microcosm of how the Thunder operate as this complex entity in the NBA. They’re like an actor stepping in front of the camera. On some nights, they’re capable of being at the peak of their craft and no one can deliver the type of performance that they can. On other nights, they can look average, dysfunctional, and downright unwatchable.
More specifically, they are the Matthew McConaughey of the league.
When you look at the body of work of McConnaughey, it’s one of the most puzzling and sprawling catalogs that you’re going to see both in terms of subject matter and in terms of his individual performance as an actor. For every Interstellar, there’s a Fool’s Gold. For every Dallas Buyers Club, there’s a How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Just as there’s a Game 2 against the Warriors for every Game 1.
For me at least, the peak of the Matthew McConaughey career arc at this point was his co-starring in True Detective Season 1 on HBO as Rust Cole. It was such a complex role and one that could’ve gone awry if not done precisely — but McConaughey executed it with immense precision and was the one on screen that left an impression on everyone. He took something near impossible, dug down, and conquered it — a Thunder team going into Oracle for a Game 1 and going toe-to-toe with the defending champs to get the win.
Contrarily, though, McConaughey hasn’t been immune to the performances where he’s collecting the paycheck and looking like a shiny toy on the screen and nothing else. You look at a movie like Failure to Launch (aptly titled in comparison to Game 2 for OKC) and it’d be a miracle of he was engaged on set for more than a day judging by the final product. The Thunder’s showing in Game 2 is of that same ilk; though they kept it in reach through two quarters, that wasn’t the same Durant, the same Westbrook, and the same revolutionary team that suited up for Game 1.
Both McConaughey and the Thunder have this duality about them in their craft. At their best, they can be a revelation sure to succeed and deserve every modicum of acclaim that they received. At their worst, you’re just going to watch Friends re-runs instead.