Andrew Bogut steps up when Warriors needed him most
OAKLAND – Andrew Bogut always said the right things.
But it had to hurt last June, when his Golden State Warriors celebrated that title in Cleveland and the veteran big man whose arrival in March 2012 sparked such a culture shift for this once-flailing franchise found himself in a most uncomfortable position. NBA champion, and resident bench warmer.
Everything changed about that Cavaliers series when Bogut sat in those last three games, when coach Steve Kerr opted to go small with Andre Iguodala in the starting lineup and the prideful Bogut – who had anchored the league’s top defense in that regular season – made such a vital sacrifice. He never griped. He never groaned. The Warriors won, and his willingness to take it all in stride was the latest testament to what was, by pro sports’ standards, an extremely selfless environment.
But this would have been different, this painful notion that the defending champions would be put out to pasture by an Oklahoma City Thunder team that exploited the very rim he’s paid to protect. Bogut had been bad in Games 3 and 4, with poor play and foul trouble leading to a combined 23 minutes. And then, at the all-or-nothing time when they needed him most, Bogut came up big and helped the Warriors to a 120-111 win which puts the series at 3-2 Thunder as the two teams head back to Oklahoma City for Game 6 on Saturday.
The Thunder had averaged 55 points in the paint in those two fateful games, with Russell Westbrook & Co. applying pressure in the kind of way that threatened to spoil the Warriors’ season-long party. This time? Bogut logged nearly 30 minutes, tallied 15 points, 14 rebounds, two blocks, and – most important of all – two fouls.The Thunder, in turn, had just 30 points in the paint.
After the previous two games in which the Warriors had allowed the Thunder to score 72 points in each of the first halves, Bogut anchored a defense that held the Thunder to 42.9% shooting, forced 17 turnovers (for 20 points) and wind up even in a rebounding battle (45-45) that they’d won by a combined total of 108-78 in Games 3 and 4.
“(The past two games were) frustrating, but that’s professional sports,” Bogut said. “You have good games, and bad games, and I feel good about myself now obviously and you have another game with Game 6, obviously, so you have to forget about it. It turns around quick, obviously. Now we’re trying to do something that not many people have done, but it has been a frustrating four games for us.
“This game tonight, we needed to make sure that we played and won and lost on our terms, played the way that we played this whole season. If they beat us, if (Kevin Durant) and Russ (Westbrook) had 40 (points) and we played our way, then we wouldn’t have been disappointed, but that’s something we wanted to do tonight.”
That meant that Steph Curry was Steph Curry again, with the back-to-back MVP scoring 31 points, seven rebounds and six assists after a woeful showing in the past two games (5-of-21 shooting from three-point range). And Draymond Green, who was such a flashpoint of the Warriors’ demise after his woeful two-game showing, awoke with a 11-point, 13-rebound, four-assist, four-block outing that was a vintage performance.
But Bogut, who has made it clear that he wants to sign an extension this offseason and remain a pivotal part of this Warriors squad, was the X-factor in the end.
“I thought Boges was phenomenal,” Kerr said of Bogut. “He rebounded, he scored, he was aggressive. We went into him on the post to try to get him as a passer with our cutters around him, and he was tremendous – 14 boards. Obviously, rebounding has been an issue. It's an issue for everybody against Oklahoma City. So when he can play that way and rebound the ball like that, it just gives us a much better chance to win the game.
“I believe in Boges. I think he can play that way in Game 6. I think he really found his stride tonight, and I think that momentum will carry over.”
This, from Game 6 and beyond, is how the Warriors must survive.
“We still have a long way to go,” Bogut said. “We have to go to OKC and win in a very tough building, and they play very, very differently at home. But I feel like we’re playing with house money. Nobody expects us to do it. We’ve been in this position before where people haven’t expected us to do things, so I’d like to think we thrive in these situations and we can come out confident and get an important Game 6 and come back home.”