NBA: Klay and the Dubs win Game 6: The machine flips the switch

The Golden State Warriors give up their head coach puzzles with their performance fluctuations. Game 6 against the Houston Rockets has shown, however, that the champion can still find the proverbial switch – and that Klay Thompson is just the right “machine” for it.

Steve Kerr is well known for honestly answering reporters’ questions, not least for this reason he was recently awarded the Rudy Tomjanovich Award for his cooperation with the media for the second time. His statements after Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals were no exception – on the contrary. They were deep in sight.

“Today was a pretty good microcosm for our team, in several ways,” explained the Warriors’ head coach. “We’ve got these lapses and these explosions. I have no idea why we’re like this. If you know, please tell me.” In principle, that explained almost everything you need to know about the 2018 Warriors.

No other team in the NBA scatters as much down as up, not even the Cavaliers. Even individual dub quarters can differ day and night – as seen in Game 6.

In the first quarter, Golden State did almost everything wrong that could be done wrong. The Dubs started in a hurry, they were defensively unfocused, just in transition. They left the shooters of the Rockets blank and collected the receipt in the form of a 17-point deficit, which could well have been higher if the Rockets hadn’t produced so many turnovers.

From Houston’s point of view, the lead should have been at least 25 points. But even such a difference is not uncatchable for the Warriors. While they are undoubtedly able to act for 20 minutes or more in half sleep and perform listlessly, they still have the highest upside of all teams when they are focused.

Then no residue is too high, no guidance is safe. Hardly any team has ever been as good at a 10-0 run within 30, 40, 50 seconds, especially in the Oracle Arena, where the atmosphere rocks even higher with every threesome, with every stop. When the Warriors are in their element, it’s sometimes not so easy to see, as quickly as in the second half of Game 6, the ball fidgets on the net again after a loss or a miss.

Sometimes the Rockets hardly knew what happened to them. It took the Warriors 95 seconds in the third quarter to turn the 10-point gap into a 2-point gap on break, a time-out and a stop later to take the lead when Stephen Curry from downtown scored. Houston then held out for a few more minutes, but this rarely goes well for long when the Warriors celebrate their basketball.

Their basketball, that is: The pace is high, the ball moves and has “energy”, which is also transferred to the defense, which then becomes almost frenetic. In games 4 and 5 the Rockets had impressively managed to dissuade the Warriors from “their” basketball, Golden State was unusually slow and played much more isolations than usual, mainly because Kevin Durant made most of the decisions offensively. At times their game reminded almost more of the OKC Thunder of earlier days than of the Golden State basketball of the last years.

Game 6 was, in the second half, a victory in the style of the “old” Warriors. Curry again took the reins in the offense, Draymond Green was defensively to be found everywhere and in front probably the most important playmaker: A statline of 4 points (2/3 FG), 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals and 5 blocks and a plus/minus of +27 were never in the playoffs – from now on one should probably simply call this a “quintessential draymond”. The biggest “hero” of game 6, however, was Klay Thompson.

Two years ago, the Warriors last had to play an elimination game in the conference finals when they were trailing 2-3 in Oklahoma City. At the time, Thompson saved her 73-season victory with eleven triples and 41 points, changing the course of recent NBA history – Durant would hardly have become a warrior if OKC had won this game.

Although the situation was not quite as dramatic in this game 6, the Dubs, who were under real pressure for the first time in their time with Durant, were at stake again. And once again it was Thompson who shaped the game – this time with nine threes and 35 points, but above all an absolutely spectacular defense against James Harden, whom he partly pressed all over the field.

“Klay was incredible today,” Kerr said. “The guy’s a machine. He’s so physically fit. These situations seem to spur him on. He was fantastic.” When Durant was asked later whether Thompson’s performance reminded him of the fateful 2016 game, he only asked: “Let’s not talk about it. I don’t know. I don’t know. Next question, please.” No wonder he didn’t want to think back to that.

Thompson often goes under with the Warriors because of his inconspicuous (carefree?) manner, there were also in these playoffs already games in which he was invisible on the court. Against the Rockets he was good in games 1 and 5, but hardly appeared in between. The new pressure situation spurred him on noticeably in game 6, but from the second quarter on the game mutated into a Thompson show.

“I didn’t want to go home yet. We worked too hard for that,” Thompson said afterwards. “I guess you could say I was born to do this. Man, that was fun.” For a stoic character like him, who usually threatens to fall asleep in most interviews, this could almost be described as an emotional outburst.

But also justified: The Warriors won the second half with 39 points difference, which was another play-off record. Especially thanks to Thompson, Curry and Green. It was an electric performance by the reigning champion, in which even Durant’s relatively anonymous appearance did not play a negative role; on the contrary. KD wasn’t on the court at some of the best phases of the dubs.

Of course, records are not (anymore) what the warriors are most interested in. They want to win the next title and, unlike in the Conference Finals in 2016, they have to win the seventh game in a different hall. Even if Chris Paul should continue to fail, which according to ESPN is not yet certain, this is not an easy task. The Rockets will fire from all pipes again, just as they did at the beginning of game 6, before Golden State turned the course of the game upside down. The series has not been decided at all.

Self-confidently the Warriors can still travel to Texas, regardless of the injury situation. Game 6 showed once again that their best basketball is still the best in the league, even if they don’t always show it by far. As long as they can find the proverbial switch in time, their nonchalance during the season and playoffs is frustrating, but somehow understandable for their coach.

You just have to remember what it is. “I feel we’re the best and funniest team in the world to push the ball,” said Thompson, not a man of big words. “We have too much talent… we must trust the man before us. “Usually everything will end well for us.”