Warriors quickly regain lead, swagger, control of series
OAKLAND — This was vintage Oracle Arena, in all its surface-of-the-sun glory.
When the Golden State Warriors marketing folks hand out those bright yellow T-shirts like they did on Wednesday — the ones that fans get mocked for not wearing if they're unlucky enough to wind up on the in-house Jumbotron — you almost need sunglasses to spare the pupils in this place. And headphones, of course, unless perforated eardrums are your kind of thing.
But the difference this time, the thing that separated this game from all the rest and bodes so well for the Golden State Warriors going forward in these Western Conference semifinals and beyond, was that the Oracle factor was reaching its peak at the end of the first quarter. The 98-78 win over the Memphis Grizzlies that gave them a 3-2 series lead was still almost two hours from being complete, yet the victory lap had already unofficially begun.
The Grizzlies had led by 10 points early, with Zach Randolph looking like Karl Malone and the angst that filled this building in Golden State's Game 2 loss making a return visit. One minute and 58 seconds of game time later — Andre Iguodala jumper, Stephen Curry three-pointer, Draymond Green three-point play and Curry again from long-range — and the Warriors were suddenly up 26-25.
Curry, the born showman who scored 12 of his 18 points in that first quarter, couldn't wait for the buzzer to sound so he could call on the rabid Warriors loyalists to join their cause. He screamed as the deafening din grew, his arms flapping once, then twice, then three, four and finally five times in all. He pumped his fist as if this were game-winning stuff, and the truth of it all is that it practically was.
"Yeah, the first 10 minutes were not pretty," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "The crowd was anxious. I thought we were a little tight. I thought we came out a little nervous. We settled in there. That was the key stretch of the game in the first quarter. We were down 10, 12 (points), to actually having the lead. I thought it was a miracle having the lead after the first quarter the way that game went. But it was an important stretch. We seemed to get our legs underneath us at that point and that's when our defense really kicked in."
It's not normal to see such raw emotion so early, even in the throes of a high-stakes playoff game. But the message, as was made quite clear, is the Warriors have found their swagger again.
"You feel the energy of the crowd, and I was getting some clean looks," said Curry, the reigning MVP who became the first player in NBA history to have six three-pointers and six steals in the same playoff game. "So you make a couple, keep being aggressive and just try to read the situation in every possession. I was able to get free off some great screens in Draymond and (Andrew) Bogut.
"If you draw a couple of defenders and you're able to move it on, and that's when you get really easy looks and you have confidence to knock those down. It was a cool moment. Obviously, we were down a good amount in the first quarter, and to get back into the game and get our crowd into it to end that quarter as strong as we did was important for us going through that game."
Said Green of the first-quarter finish: "That did a lot for us. After the start that we had, to go into the second quarter with the lead, it just continues to build that confidence and that swagger that you need to carry on the court. That really did a lot for us.
"We put them on their heels a little bit. I mean, with their defense, we kind of added more back-cuts and stuff, and it has kind of loosened them up a little bit. I think the way we've been pushing the ball too, as opposed to the way they were dictating the pace. It has kind of changed it a little bit, loosened them up a bit the way we've been pushing the ball as opposed to them having us on our heels."
This series has been nothing if not unpredictable, so it's a fool's errand to say there's no way it goes seven games (just as it was a bad idea to wonder aloud if Memphis would win a game, but we won't get into that). The expected return of Grizzlies guard Tony Allen in Game 6 on Friday is a game-changer on its own, though his hamstring problem will likely keep him from playing like the defensive tyrant he is known to be. But should the Warriors fail to show the necessary killer instinct in Memphis, the notion that their season would all be on the line back here at Oracle on Sunday is a mental security blanket if ever there were one.
"That's what Oracle's about," said Warriors point guard Shaun Livingston. "That's a real home-court advantage and we've got to feed off of that. I think it can be intimidating for other teams. They really have to pull together to sustain the runs that we go on with the type of crowd that we've got."
To Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger's defense, he simply hasn't been afforded the same cache of weapons as Kerr. Memphis had its magical moment in Game 2, with Mike Conley's unexpected return sparking its two-game winning streak and putting the Warriors in the unfamiliar position of playing from behind.
But for the second game in a row, the Warriors looked like the team that won 67 games in the regular season again, like the team that won 39 of 41 homes games and is fully capable of living up to all the hype that comes with that kind of dominance.
The straight-shooting Joerger said it well afterwards, admitting that you just have to shrug when a squad that has All-Stars like Curry and Klay Thompson (21 points) can get these kinds of contributions from role players like Harrison Barnes (14 points) and Iguodala (16 points on 7-of-10 shooting). Randolph did virtually nothing after that first quarter, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Memphis was held to a woeful 39.8% shooting from the field.
Bright spots all around for the Warriors and all kinds of noise about how, as their confidence soars yet again, they may be primed to move on.
"The playoffs is all about adjustments," Livingston said. "It's a chess match. So we made our adjustments. I'm sure they'll come back and adjustment. But you know, I think we have our formula and our recipe for what we need to do to beat this team. So I'll just leave it at that.
"You've got to be killer (in Game 6) — everybody. We've got to have the mentality that we're not letting up. That's what it's about. That's what championship teams do. There has to be a sense of urgency, and we'll have that."
Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.
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