No Kevin Durant. An allegedly ailing Steph Curry. Andre Iguodala playing after needing an MRI on his left leg after Game 1 and then heading to the locker room in the second quarter of Game 2 after getting hammered by Marc Gasol. And – hey – just for good measure, there goes Kevon Looney with a chest contusion or, maybe, “something with his shoulder,” according to his head coach, Steve Kerr.
Geezus. Boogie Cousins breaking out all over. Six weeks after a serious quadriceps injury suffered in Game 2 of the Western Conference quarter-finals, Cousins started, played 27 minutes and 38 seconds and had 11 points, six assists and 10 boards and he squeezed the life out of the Toronto Raptors‘ fourth-quarter comeback in Golden State’s 109-104 win.
Boogie.
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And what about Klay Thompson, you ask? He was in the locker-room for the fourth quarter with some left hamstring issue. Nice. It was suggested to Iguodala after it was all done and the Golden State Warriors had somehow tied this series, that this might be – just maybe – the toughest slog of them all.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Iguodala said, unwrapping one of three ice-bags on various joints after his dagger three-pointer with 26.9 seconds left represented some kind of imprimatur for a guy who managed all of five points to that moment. “We have been on long runs and all everyone sees is a lot of wins and they think it’s easy and it looks like we’re overpowering everybody … but a lot of hard work goes into it. I think every year, through the playoff stretch, we’ve had somebody go down.
“This one will be harder, because they (the Raptors) have something good over there. Let’s see what we can do.”
Yes, why don’t we? Just for yuks. Something like gaining a much sought-after split, rebounding from a first-ever Game 1 Finals loss under Steve Kerr with DeMarcus Cousins, Quinn Cook and Andrew Bogut getting more than half your points in the fourth quarter, when in addition to Thompson being limited to four minutes, Curry was scoreless in 7:59.
Curry said later that the Warriors don’t put any ‘strength in numbers’ mantra on T-shirts any more, that “when you get to this stage, our DNA shows up.
“So, it’s not something you just throw out there to have nice shirts and give out to the crowd at Oracle (Arena) … and have all this marketing stuff. It’s literally how we approach every day from training camp until June.”
Curry finished with 23 points – 12 of them in the final five minutes of the second quarter, as the Warriors whittled down what had been a 12-point Raptors lead to five. He had only a marginal hand in the 18-0 third-quarter run that allowed the
Warriors to seize control, with five of his seven points coming after the momentum had switched. Curry had just two of the staggering 14 assists his team had in the quarter, when Kerr made a significant strategic move and had Draymond Green switch over to Kyle Lowry for consecutive possessions.
Curry was not feeling well at the start of the game – “don’t really know what the cause was, just didn’t feel right,” he said, – but while he struggled to regain his footing Thompson was a beast, scoring 18 of his team-high 25 points. By the time Thompson was put in dry-dock after landing awkwardly – Thompson was not made available after the game – the Warriors bench was fully engaged. The fourth quarter was a mess, but the Warriors hauled down four crucial rebounds in a span of two minutes in the fourth to limit the Raptors second chance points.
Yet through it all, Thompson (18) and Curry (16) – the latter of whom was gasping for air noticeably early in the game – did something Sunday that according to ESPN they’ve never done before in a Final: they each scored 15 points in the first half.
“I think he may have been a little dehydrated,” Kerr said of Curry. “He just was feeling a little light-headed and went back into the training room and came back and was doing much better.”
As for Thompson? “Klay said he’ll be fine, but Klay could be half dead and say he’ll be fine,” added Kerr.
Half-dead is of course where the Warriors would have been with a loss – down 2-0 and heading home and with the pressure on Durant to suit up. Kerr said before the game that he believed it would take just one practice for Durant to get ready. His players just brought him and the medical staff another game, if they want it.
It was suggested to Iguodala that despite all the injuries, that third quarter run said something about the time-tested, yet often overlooked, importance of the Warriors defence.
“Our defence is always overlooked because of our offence,” he said. “We know when the defence is clicking and limiting the other team to one shot, it puts us in a position to basically score at will. That’s what happened. We got stops, and it was like: ‘Oh … this is good.”
Certainly turned out to be.
They’ve seen it before, after all. When you have rings, who needs a slogan or t-shirt to tell you you have strength in numbers.
“It gave us a little different look out there with the lob threat,” said Kerr of Cousins and Bogut. “So, we’ll just see what we have got and tee it up for Game 3.”