Last Tuesday night, Steph Curry and the Warriors looked like they were going to miss out on the chance to take a second straight trip to the NBA Finals. After putting together a terrific 73-win regular season, Golden State had fallen behind 3-1 in their Western Conference Finals series against the Thunder, and even though they were on their way back home for Game 5, all hope looked lost for the team. Curry tried to keep things positive in his post-game press conference following Game 4—“This is a tough situation to be in,” he said, “but the series isn’t over”—but there were many, many, many NBA fans (including some Golden State fans!) counting the Warriors out.
So much for that.
On Monday night, the Warriors defeated the Thunder 96-88 in Game 7 of the WCF to become just the 10th team in NBA history to bounce back from a 3-1 playoff series deficit. They did so behind a 36-point performance from Curry, who hit this clutch three-pointer with about 30 seconds left in the game to seal a win for the Warriors:
Outside of sealing the game, that three also helped Curry set a new NBA postseason record for most three-pointers in a playoff series. He finished with 32 threes against the Thunder:
Following Game 7, the Warriors were, of course, ecstatic. And they were more than happy to explain how they were able to complete their historic 3-1 comeback against the Thunder. Curry described the Warriors’ entire 2016 playoff run as a “roller-coaster ride”:
Klay Thompson talked about how he got off to a slow start during Game 7 but was eventually able to rebound during “gut-check time”:
Draymond Green said he didn’t feel as though the Warriors were “battling” hard enough during Games 3 and 4:
Andre Iguodala, who played a team-high 43 minutes during Game 7, described the entire experience as “tough”:
And Steve Kerr explained how the Thunder were able to prevent the Warriors' bench from getting going during the series, which is why he feels Golden State had such a tough time with Oklahoma City:
Now that the Warriors have defeated the Thunder, they’ll have to turn around and start preparing for a Finals matchup with LeBron James and the Cavaliers almost immediately. But something tells us they’re going to allow themselves to enjoy their victory over the Thunder for at least a day or two. This series win was special.
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