OAKLAND, Calif. — With this entire historic season on the line, the Warriors have reached their moment of truth. Actually, there will be three moments of truth if they are so lucky, but they have no choice but to take
OAKLAND, Calif. — With this entire historic season on the line, the Warriors have reached their moment of truth. Actually, there will be three moments of truth if they are so lucky, but they have no choice but to take it one moment at a time.
History shows that teams facing 3-1 deficits in the NBA playoffs face incredibly long odds of advancing — even longer in the conference finals — but Warriors coach Steve Kerr believes his team’s home-court situation softens the numbers a bit and that there’s still a reasonable possibility of climbing out of the deep hole and turning things around.
“We are the defending champs,” Kerr said Wednesday. “Most teams that were down 3-1 in the conference finals, I’m guessing weren’t the defending champs. We feel very confident. We have potentially three games, two of them at home. If we can do what we’ve done for two seasons and protect our home floor, it’s 3-2 and we have momentum.”
Nine teams out of 232 have rallied from 3-1 deficits in the history of the NBA playoffs, but only three have done it in a conference final, and teams down 3-1 in conference finals have also gone on to lose the series 25 consecutive times since the Boston Celtics last did it, against the Philadelphia 76ers, in 1981 — 35 years ago.
But Kerr sounded as confident as a coach can be with his team on the brink of elimination. He maintained that regaining a positive vibe by winning Game 5 at Oracle Arena on Thursday night could flip the series.
“We knew after we lost Game 1, we were going to have to win one game in OKC and we failed in our first two chances,” the coach said. “So if we take care of business at home, we’ll have one more swing down there and we’ll see what happens. We just want to give ourselves one more try in Oklahoma City.”
Kerr said the mood around the club following two sloppy, lopsided losses in Oklahoma City was somber but not desperate. He termed the flight home to Oakland as “not festive. It was quiet.
“I think it’s just a sense of reality staring us in the face,” he said. “We’re down 3-1, obviously, so we have to win, but momentum can shift quickly in the playoffs. We’ve seen that the last couple of years.”
General manager Bob Myers, speaking on his weekly radio show on 95.7 The Game, was equally positive about the Warriors’ chances to rally and still win the series.
“This is it,” Myers said. “We have an opportunity to win at home (Thursday) and go back there and try to do what we haven’t been able to do yet and win one on the road like we have all year. And we’re capable. The best thing is we’re capable. We just haven’t played our best, and we need to now.
“One thing you don’t do is quit,” Myers continued. “I don’t think this team will ever quit. I won’t. The coaches won’t. Nobody’s going to quit. You learn more in adversity than you do in success. This is where you learn more about each other collectively.”
If there’s anything the Warriors have going for them from an odds standpoint, it’s that seven of the nine 3-1 rallies were done by a higher seed, and of course, Golden State is the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
But none of it will matter if the Warriors can’t find their competitive groove, and there seems to be a difference of opinion on whether their MVP, Stephen Curry, is physically able to deliver. A report on Yahoo Sports quoted an unnamed source as saying Curry is “70 percent, at best,” but both Kerr and Myers maintained they don’t believe that to be true.
Kerr gave the team the day off even though their fate is hanging on the precipice. A few players worked out voluntarily and others received treatment, but the coach said that players taking a step back and getting their minds right is more important than X’s and O’s at this point.
“We don’t need to be on the court today,” he said. “This is a day to get refreshed, then come in (Thursday) to shoot around and get back to work.”
They’ll need to do it against a Thunder team Kerr acknowledged seems to have all of its stars aligned.
“They are healthy, they are whole, and they are determined,” Kerr said. “They want what we have. We have a banner hanging up here and we’re proud of it. It’s hard to accomplish, they’ve been close, but they haven’t done it, and they’re coming after us. We have to stand up to that, match up to that intensity.”
Said Myers: “This is what makes sports great, the highs, the lows. For the people who love competition, who love the fight, here we are, and let’s see what happens.”
