The Oklahoma City Thunder were in trouble as soon as they were ahead three games to one in the 2016 western conference finals. While everyone was excited for the matchup before the series began, Golden State losing at home and then being blown out twice in the first four games, came as a surprise. It surprised the fans, the media, the Warriors; I’m not sure about the Thunder. I would bet they weren’t surprised. Which is to say, they “always believed,” that they were this good. Still, it had to be unexpected, no matter what sort of locker room or press conference speak KD and Russ espoused.
The unexpected is rarely good. Getting called into work on your day off, pregnancies, and being one win away from the NBA Finals, with three games left to play. By all logical calculations, the red carpet to Cleveland had been rolled out for OKC. Throw logic out, though, and it all starts to make sense.
The Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder were known for three things during the 2015-16 NBA season:
- Being the third best team in the West.
- Being the third best team in the West (despite having two of the top 6 players in the NBA).
- Blowing a TON of fourth quarter leads.
The Thunder’s regular season took a back seat – along with nearly every other team – to the Warriors quest for 73 wins. If people talked about other teams, it was either: ESPN concocting stories about the Cavaliers and Lebron James, or devout followers of Pop mentioning the “amazing” regular season the Spurs are having. That created a clear tier separation when talking about the Western Conference. The Warriors were in a class of their own, and if anyone had a chance to break into the upper echelon, it was the Spurs. It wouldn’t be surprising if some Spurs homers, who ride or die for the black and silver, think the Spurs could’ve cracked 70 wins as well, “if Pop actually cared about the regular season.”
Then there were the Thunder. With the Clippers doing Clipper things, the Thunder were team number three out West. They were the odd team out when people started talking about the playoffs, and how, “the Western Conference Finals between Golden State and San Antonio is going to be better than the finals.” Oklahoma City won 55 games this regular season (compared to 67 and 73, for San Antonio and Golden State). If you are a casual fan who just tuned in for the playoffs, and you were presented with those three win totals, not attached to their respective teams, there is a good chance you think the Thunder were the 67 win team.
I mean, it makes sense, right? Kevin Durant is such a lethal scorer. Russell Westbrook is a triple-double machine, who seemed to be unlocking another level of Super Saiyan, sometime during the middle of the Spurs series. After their game seven loss to the Warriors, though, it looks like they may never be able to shake whatever prophetic tragedy has cursed them.
Then there are the fourth quarter collapses that plagued the Thunder during the regular season. The most famous of which, now looks oddly riddled with foreshadowing.
The Thunder blew a fourth quarter lead in game six of the conference finals against the Warriors. They were up by eight entering the final 12 minutes. It’s important to understand this problem when trying to explain what happened to the Thunder after coming within one win of the NBA Finals.
The Thunder were suddenly faced with the same demon that tortured them the entire regular season: Finish. Being up three to one in a series is such a lock, that the Warriors comeback marks only the tenth time in NBA history the feat has been accomplished (the fourth time in a conference final). Look at what the Thunder had in front of them at that point, though:
- Game 5 at Golden State: Like the Warriors were ever going to lose this series in five at Oracle Arena.
- Game 6 in Oklahoma City: Thunder win or else… #pressure
- Game 7: Oracle. Steph. Tragedy. GG.
In a microcosm of their regular season, the Thunder proceeded to turn back into the team they were at the beginning of the Spurs series. Before Billy Donovan gave Russell a longer rest on the bench than usual. Before they suddenly became the team that everyone knows they can be if they utilize the talent on their roster.
I know I said the three games to one lead surprised everyone besides the Thunder, but is it okay if I hedge that a little? It was both surprising, and completely unsurprising, because the ingredients were always there with the Thunder. If someone who missed the first four games of the series, and was looking for an explanation for how the Warriors were down three games to one; all you would have had to tell them was, “looks like KD and Russ finally figured it out.” It looked like that was the case, until it wasn’t.
The Golden State Warriors
If I were to go up to some Hollywood executive and tell him I had an idea for a TV show or a movie about a basketball team, and then proceeded to tell him the story of the 2015-16 Warriors, I would likely get told the plot was unrealistic. Think about their season in terms of a TV show pitch.
“…So, there’s this basketball team, and, they won the championship last year, but they’re still an underdog… Yeah, cause the team they beat in The Finals had some guys who were hurt…. Anyway, they have this guy on their team who is the best at shooting three pointers, ever… we’ll call him Steph, in the movie he’s going to break the regular season three point record by over 100 made threes…. And he has a teammate who is debatably the second best shooter of all time… Mhm… Also, the first guy, Steph, he hits a bunch of half court shots and can just casually make baskets from much farther than everyone else ever could… So, yeah, they break the record for most wins in a season, and uh, during the first round of the playoffs Steph gets hurt, but the team still wins and he misses some of the next round, but when he comes back, he scores 40 points off the bench and outscores the other team in overtime… Mhm, yeah that’s another record…. So then, they play this team called the Thunder, who have a player who really really hates Steph, we’ll call him Russ, and the Thunder and Russ are destroying the team! Oh no! They’re down three games to one, and all hope seems lost, but then, they come back… They win the next three games, to send themselves back to The Finals, where they play the same team they beat last year, only this time, everyone is healthy…”
It is a sports movie that is everything you want a sports movie to be. The team is the best, but they are also the underdog somehow. They make it to The Finals, but not without beating the bad guys after facing some adversity. AND, they do things that make you say, “that wouldn’t really happen in real life.” Like when Steph was just hitting half court shots over and over. It was the basketball equivalent of the first season of Friday Night Lights, where it seemed like every game ended with a last second touchdown, except with half court shots.
I don’t want to take anything away from the Warriors historic season, it’s just that, a sports movie is the only thing I’ve experienced that I can compare their season to. They obviously had some incredible performances from Steph and Klay during the final three games of the series. The point of the game is to get the ball into the hoop. Steph and Klay are just vastly better than everyone else at getting the ball in the hoop. It’s kind of that simple if you want a statistical explanation for what happened in the final three games. Go look at the three pointers each team made. For the series the Thunder made 55 three pointers, Steph and Klay made 62…
This series was ultimately the story of two teams fated for different ends. Being ahead in the series by such a large margin, wasn’t enough for the Thunder to escape collapse. I was surprised there weren’t more people pointing to the Thunder’s inability to close out games possibly translating to their ability to close out a series.
At the same time, it seemed like people had forgotten all of the unbelievable moments the Warriors provided throughout the season. Storylines come and go so fast in our culture, people were already moving on to “KD and Russ finally finally figured it out.” What those people didn’t realize was, it was all just part of Golden State’s story. A sports movie being shot in real time. A climactic sequence, during one of the most incredible seasons in NBA history . The team that couldn’t finish, against the team of destiny. Remove the logic; It’s that simple.
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