From the players' and front office's point of view, it sounds like the plan to keep everyone around this summer may have actually been hatched when courting Durant last summer.
"If whoever Gobert is guarding sets a solid screen, KD's going to come off wide open", Warriors coach Mike Brown said. Their status has never changed since the day Kevin Durant announced his intention to join an already-dominant group: favorites, possibly big ones, and possibly one of the most loaded rosters of all time.
But on Saturday night, the Warriors coaching staff once again found within their roster the tools they needed to dismantle the Jazz's attach. Golden State had just 17. Kevin Durant - a veritable cupcake - shot 15-26, largely against one of the NBA's best defenders, and pushed back when that defender paid tribute to the performance by swinging a late-game frustration elbow at him.
"We get a chance to break through or the season's over", Snyder said.
Draymond Green was 7-of-13 from downtown in the first two meetings.
But not on Saturday night. Green got hit with his first technical foul of the playoffs, too. On his way to the bench, a heckling section of fans caught his attention. As the crowd roared, he gave a 2-0 hand gesture to indicate the series record.
"The other 19,000 people in the arena and everyone else watching on TV saw the same thing I saw", Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. "I think there's some places I go where I should definitely should be booed". They didn't slow them down much in the third, but they kept the game close enough to not be too anxious about it. Curry struggled with shooting, but with around three minutes left in the third, he brought the team within one point of the Jazz. They made more trips to the line, had a much higher percentage of assisted baskets than the Warriors (an extreme rarity given the teams' respective styles of offense) and got to the line 11 more times. Like, stop booing me like that. "But its fun", said Green, via ESPN. They led by one at halftime and eventually built a nine-point advantage.
This is exactly why the Warriors brought in Durant.
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Costa celebrates scoring the opening goal. "Now we have to do another step and we have the chance to do this against West Brom ". Bad night, a really bad season, the lowest point of my career by a long way and everyone else in the dressing room.
Both Curry's and Klay Thompson's offensive games have taken a hit, especially Thompson, who had a mere six points last night.
The Jazz's backcourt of Shelvin Mack (in for the injured George Hill) and Joe Ingles had 13 points at the half. Thompson has been in a bit of a slump and was 1 for 9 Saturday. Halfway through the fourth quarter.
The Jazz came out strong in the third quarter, causing the Warriors to take a quick time out to slow them down.
But their best shot just wasn't good enough. Durant was comfortable, inviting contact and destroying anything that got in his way. The two squared up on one another and had to be separated. "(Rudy) Gobert is a load down there in the paint, so I know I just can't go in there and throw up anything. The game was out of reach.
It was a call-back to Durant's days in Oklahoma City as the former MVP reminded just how much of a mismatch he is for any defender. "The league has to do what they have to do".
We have a year of evidence that these Warriors, while versatile, prefer to play a joyous style of basketball. But, the seventh game of their post season journey puncuated why the addition of the super star makes Golden State the prohibitive West Finalist.
A year before, it was Green's suspension in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals that turned the series on its head and allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to rally from a 3-1 series defeat en route to a championship.
Golden State will move on to the Western Conference Finals and Utah will look to the offseason, most notably the impending free agency of Gordon Hayward.
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