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OAKLAND, Calif. – The Golden State Warriors lost 15 points at the end of the fourth quarter, and Arena Arena's crowd noises shifted from disbelief to silence. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala were leaning to the waist, gassed, gripping their shorts for ballast. Steve Kerr sat on the bench with clasped hands, looking like a man without ideas. You do not even need the dashboard; body language told you everything.
When the Toronto Raptors took a two-game lead in the NBA Finals with a win in Game 3 against Oracle, the Warriors reacted by shrugging their shoulders. They were a compromised team about to get closer to the whole thing. They were champions. They had overcome worse situations against better teams – none of that was a big problem.
But after the Raptors won Friday's match 4 – 105-92 convincingly – to take a 3-1 lead, the challenge evaporated, replaced by a reluctant recognition. For the Warriors to win their third consecutive title, it will take something spectacular – and something they showed no signs of possession.
It's a tough, non-thematic series, but in Game 4, there was an event that would have seemed unfathomable two weeks ago. The Warriors, up four at half-time, were outscored by 16 in the third quarter. The Raptors put pressure on them in defense, teamed up with Curry and attacked in attack, getting open shots and easy pick-and-roll baskets.
In short, the Raptors off Warriored the Warriors.
"The third quarter has escaped us," said Livingston. "But I think in the first half – in particular, we had a few moments when we did not capitalize, and they were always at a striking distance.It's dangerous to play a team with such power of fire They were hot in the third quarter and that escaped us. "
This is the chorus throughout the league since the Warriors won their first title five years ago. All teams in the league have felt the scrub rush of a Golden State race and have been powerless to stop it. No waiting time, no game call, no defensive adjustment has proven to be a reliable deterrent. And now, the Warriors are, at a game of elimination, as if they were playing against an earlier version of themselves.
"They found a rhythm" Draymond Green said, "And once such a team has found a rhythm, it's hard to get it out of there."
The night began with such a promise. Thompson, whose presence represented the physical manifestation of the Warriors' hopes, went to court just over 50 minutes before the match. The Oracle Arena crowd, desperate to carry the last days of the arena to its last possible conclusion, applauded enthusiastically when it came out of the tunnel and nine minutes later, when he raised his arms and returned to the locker room.
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After missing the third game due to a hamstring strain, Thompson scored 28 points on 11 shots of 18 in 42 minutes. Backup Center Kevon Looney was also back – one way or another – after missing Game 3 because of a broken bone near the right collarbone that had previously been diagnosed as late season. Although he had difficulties in the end, Looney scored 10 points and got six rebounds in 20 minutes of inspiration. But Kevin Durant, whose return is eternally waiting, was watching the game from the locker room again, as his calf injury was still not considered fit for work.
Durant's situation remains troubling, with Kerr admitting before the match that medical updates and prognoses have "gone in circles". The prospect of his return was considered the fastest and safest way for the Warriors to balance – then win – the series, and the pre-game buildup had led to the hope that match 4 would be his logical return. Its absence and a darker future from day to day added an extra layer of resignation.
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Jalen Rose reports that Kevin Durant's rehab training has not gone well and Rose is not expecting Durant to return to the series.
"We hope that it will come back the whole series," Green said. "Of course, we hope to have it, but we'll see what happens … His body will tell him if he can go or not, and he can, so much the better. And if not, you still have to try to find a way to win the next match. "
In four games, the Raptors have demonstrated remarkable resilience. And so, that never seemed to be a typical Warrior dominance – not even when Golden State created an 11-point lead in the first quarter with every missing Raptor shot, with the exception of Kawhi Leonard . During a particularly odious game, late in the first quarter, coach Nick Nurse sounded the lost time, which allowed him to get off the bench as he was about to leave building. The nurse – the master of anxiety, the maestro of the head bowed and shoulders drooped – took eight steps forward towards the tunnel before reconsidering his decision. He turned around as he had answered the sergeant instructor's call and began to applaud as he suddenly came to realize that everything was going to be fine. Leonard, probably the least loquacious man in the building, expresses it as follows: "Let's have faith and do not lower our heads."
The tight focus of the finale creates an endless stream of speculation: who is upstairs and who is down, the indispensable and the disposable. It was an uneven series and there are so many fascinating figures:
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DeMarcus Cousins, eager but diminished, constantly set back from action
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Iguodala, the statesman, playing at 38 minutes
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Leonard, the man who manages to surpass Stoicism to reach an unexplored realm of engaged indifference
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Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, linebackers on a constant search for Curry
Kerr was asked where the Warriors came from and he gave the only appropriate answer: "We are going to Toronto and we are trying to win a game."
This building could be finished – and the Golden State dynasty with him. The identities of the teams were reversed as an awkward plot. The Warriors are the team that plays to prevent the Raptors from fleeing with a massive lead. The Raptors win games with a strong third-quarter offensive and leave the field as pioneers determined to find the first title for the franchise and the country.
And somewhere, in the middle of the labyrinth of the arena's belly, Durant wakes, his absence is just as powerful as his presence. We are still eager to let what happens next determine the meaning of what has happened before, but it took four games for this series to develop a theme: Nobody really knows anything.
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