Buckle up basketball fans, today you’re in for a treat. While LeBron James and his Cavaliers finally put the underwhelming Eastern Conference out of its misery by defeating the Raptors, his brilliance a forgone conclusion at this point, the Western Conference Playoffs have produced a roller coaster of unpredictable, awe-inspiring basketball, packed with terrific individual and team performances.
It has led to a decisive Game 6 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors, with the Thunder up three games to two in the best of seven series, with Game 6 on their home floor. Few would have predicted the Thunder to have the edge on this historically dominant Warrior outfit, but they have proven the better team throughout the first five games of the series.
With the unnerving prospect of a Game 7 in Oakland, where the Warriors would have a near indomitable advantage, this has must-win stakes for both sides, a host of individual storylines for future Hall-of-Famers, and the inevitability of high-level, balls-to-the-wall amazing basketball.
Welcome to the most important NBA game in years.
Oklahoma City, a team that seemed top-heavy throughout the season with their role players disappointing and isolation style basketball accommodating their two stars, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, have slowly raised their game throughout the postseason to defying expectation at every turn.
An inevitable 5-game victory over the Dallas Mavericks was followed by a dominant showing against the 67-win San Antonio Spurs, where their athleticism and improved team-wide contribution overwhelmed a juggernaut Spurs outfit.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan, often criticised throughout his maiden NBA season for indecisiveness and baffling decisions in-game, produced a master class, altering the Thunder’s shaky regular season defence to one that suffocated the Spurs into inefficient play while killing them in the rebounding category.
Career-best performances from Steven Adams, Dion Waiters, Enes Kanter, while of course KD and Westbrook produce otherworldly basketball on a regular basis, turned a very good team into an excellent one, and these contributions will be exactly what they need to win Sunday.
Holding a 3-1 series lead, a playoffs-seasoned side with two of the league’s most incredible talents wearing the jersey, OKC’s Finals berth should be a lock, considering over 96 per cent of teams who’ve held that wide of a series lead go on to win.
Oklahoma City have their best chance at a Championship so far. Kevin Durant has been the Playoffs’ best player, breathtaking offensively and dominant defensively, relishing shutting down his assignments. He flipped the script on this team, erasing any doubt of his free agency as his leadership by example have dragged this team to the brink of glory.
Russell Westbrook is embracing the playmaker role without giving up his scoring ferocity – basically peak Westbrook as his force of nature game is disrupting the Warriors significantly. History dictates that this should be the coming of age party for the Thunder, but that would be selling the Golden State Warriors short massively.
The 73-win, defending champion, dual-MVP-led Golden State Warriors.
A lot of what Golden State has done through the postseason has felt disappointing (although after breaking the all-time wins record, anything short of basketball perfection feels inadequate). An early injury to Stephen Curry has stuttered their jaw-dropping level of play, but they still managed to cruise through to the conference finals past inferior opposition.
Amazingly, the Warriors find themselves in the unfamiliar role of underdogs for Game 6, as their scrappy win in Game 5 showed only flashes of their all-time offensive brilliance. The mystique of their historic run has been erased, the Thunder has been the better team and the Warriors now face the brink of playoff elimination.
A loss in Game 6 would not be enough to completely erase this team’s impact as a regular season titan, but the asterisk of an NBA Finals absence would significantly discount the achievement.
The winner of Game 6 will have extracted their team’s finest and most desperate effort, but several circumstances would need to fall favourably. For the Warriors, Steph Curry must spark momentum, as he has so often in the season but so rarely in this series, through disrupting the defence with his superior ball handling, vision for his teammates and his terrific shooting touch.
Klay Thompson’s unenviable assignment of guarding Westbrook must yield results while the shooting guard’s scoring prowess will be necessary to compliment his MVP backcourt partner. Draymond must return to the insufferably confident, defensively versatile All Star that was central to the team’s success earlier in the season, his efforts to keep OKC’s big men – Ibaka and Adams most importantly – quiet a big key.
For the Thunder, one, or preferably both, of Durant and Westbrook will need to maintain their team’s grip on the series with another magnificent performance, with my bet being on Westbrook’s unnaturally competitive approach overwhelming his defenders.
The rebounding battle, where OKC’s 7-footers have crushed the Warriors when they have won, will be where this game is won or lost. If Golden State can limit the offensive rebound count for the Thunder like in Game 5, the Thunder get fewer second chance possessions and Golden State’s traditionally superior shooting could put them in the position to succeed.
Outside of the Xs and Os, this game has the chance to be an all-timer, with five of the league’s top 15 players taking the floor. The Thunder seek their first title in the face of 40-to-1 odds at the beginning of the playoffs, and their first Finals berth since 2012.
Overcoming the champions-elect Warriors, who many thought were a shoe-in for a repeat not a month ago, would not only see them with a second chance at basketball immortality against the Cavs, but would complete the toughest road to the Finals in recent memory, overcoming two of the best ten regular season teams of all time.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook consider themselves the best partnership in basketball, and a victory here would go a long way to validating that.
The Warriors are playing for their season’s survival and a chance at a Game 7 on their own terms. No doubt the confidence gained from defeating the Thunder on their home floor in an elimination game would put them in nearly unstoppable stead for a Game 7, where the home advantage is traditionally a decisive factor.
We have yet to see a truly spectacular showing from any of Golden State’s stars in this series and this do-or-die circumstance will either produce one or the Warriors lose. Their legacy at stake and their backs against the wall, these wounded Warriors could be at their most dangerous now.
With everything to play for and the chance to witness basketball at its wondrous pinnacle, all that’s left for fans is to sit back and watch amazing happen.
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