Monday Bolts – 5.30.16

Berry Tramel: “OKC won a fortnight ago, stunning Golden State 108-102 at Oracle in

Game 1. Then the Thunder won back-to-back routs at Chesapeake Arena. The Thunder still is talking tough. Still expressing belief that it can withstand the historic shooting of the Splash Brothers, Curry and Klay Thompson. But that bravado, false or not, has nothing to do with whether Splash Mountain can be climbed. The Thunder has to traverse these 48 minutes like a haunted house, knowing horrors will attack around every corner. Only the strongest of teams can survive such a setting.”

Anthony Slater: “In this series, Durant has played 45 or more minutes three times. Before this series, he’d only eclipsed that number once all season. By quarter, his percentages dipped from 51 to 49 to 48 to 44 this season. He went 1-of-7 in the fourth on Saturday night. “Our team needs us on the floor,” Durant said, downplaying the fatigue factor. “So we have to fight through it.” That’s quite the Game 7 task for Durant: Fight off the growing exhaustion by fighting through a defensive pest to fight back against a historic team to claim a spot in the NBA Finals.”

KD is optimistic and confident.

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com: “That is the simple truth here. The Warriors were outplayed for three quarters, outscored in each, and were down eight heading into the fourth. And Golden State simply responded and won with their game. Was it brilliant, precise play? Not really. Was it tough, hard-fought interior buckets? A few, and one crucial one by Andre Iguodala. But really? The Warriors just made all the shots. As usual.”

Amin Elhassan with a breakdown of OKC’s breakdown.

Erik Horne: “Andre Roberson was giving up five inches in height, plus Warriors center Andrew Bogut had a handful of the Thunder guard’s jersey. No worries. By the time Bogut received the ball, Roberson had rooted him out of his post position. Roberson then switched to guarding Klay Thompson. Bogut desperately looked for an open pass, but Roberson was darting back-and-forth, shadowing Thompson’s every move. The possession ended in a shot-clock violation, single-handedly forced by Roberson.”

Floor seats are expensive for Game 7.

Ben Golliver of SI.com: “Durant and Westbrook had largely outperformed their star counterparts throughout this series, but both were guilty of pressing, and then cracking, in the biggest game of their season. Durant went 6-of-19 in the first half and finished 1-of-8 from deep on the night, scoring 29 points on 31 shots. Westbrook had 28 points on 10-of-27 and 0-of-4 from deep with his five turnovers working against his 11 assists. If either player had gotten it going from outside, perhaps Oklahoma City could have held on. Instead, the Warriors finished with 21 three-pointers to the Thunder’s three, a +18 differential that set a new NBA postseason record. After bottling up the Warriors’ guards for so much of this series, the Thunder lost track of them in late critical moments, sometimes only for a split-second.”