Can lightning strike twice in West Finals?
RUSSELL Westbrook said they did not play their best in Game One of the NBA Western Conference Finals.
That’s not easy to believe.
OK, it may not be their best, but the Oklahoma City Thunder were easily at their fiercest defensive best in the final quarter of their come-from-behind upset conquest of the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
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They can debate about the overall quality of the Oklahoma team output.
But what really stood out in the opener of the NBA Western Conference Finals was the sudden slip in shooting suffered by the usually smooth and prodigious Warriors right in their homecourt.
For the first time, Warrior coach Steve Kerr was no longer the stoic conqueror on the NBA warfront. His face was creased and his hairdo was frazzled after his frantic cry for a traveling violation against Oklahoma was shunned by the refs, his team down 105-102.
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Did Westbrook travel before he was able to sue for a timeout with 17.2 seconds left?
That was also debatable. But what really got overlooked was the main cause behind the Golden State fold-up, after the Warriors had dominated the first three quarters and taken a 14-point lead.
Coach Kerr himself would not deny it: They had allowed themselves to be rushed.
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Kerr however could not single out what had them suddenly melting in the final quarter.
Maybe there was more than one factor. And just like San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, who visibly aged on the spot when the Spurs got pushed out of the series by Oklahoma earlier, Kerr was left groping.
Anyway, in that crucial conquest of the favored San Antonio, Westbrook made two successive dazzling incursions that firmly put the desperate Spurs at bay.
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Now, in the win over the heavily favored Warriors in Game One of the NBA Western Conference Finals, big credit had to be given to Kevin Durant, who connected on a true treasure of a jumper with only half a minute left.
But, in honestly summing up, the incandescent all-around performance of Westbrook visibly bedeviled the favored Warriors out of sync.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the tireless Oklahoma spitfire often flashed like greased lightning, his toxic defensive stand highlighted by six steals and seven rebounds. He had 27 points, 24 coming in the turn-around final quarter. He issued 12 assists.
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Westbrook said they knew all along it would be hard, and that they had no choice but to claw hard and fight, not just compete.
Not to say that the the greased lightning stole the poetry from Steph Curry’s laureate shooting.
Oklahoma may again not be able to come up with its best game.
But it’s hard to tell whether or not lightning could strike twice in the current NBA Western Conference Finals.
