LOS ANGELES — Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, was asked about the concept of inevitability before his team faced the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, which is something that happens during the N.B.A. playoffs. Some questions are more philosophical than others.
In this case, the question had to do with the perception shared by many that the Warriors are invincible, that another championship is theirs to lose: What is it like for Kerr to live inside that bubble, knowing full well that his players are capable of making mistakes and even (gasp) failing?
Kerr took the opportunity to recall a moment from his childhood in Southern California. When he was 9 years old, he watched his beloved U.C.L.A. Bruins defeat the Kentucky Wildcats for another N.C.A.A. championship, their 10th in 12 years. Coach John Wooden retired after the game. In the nearly half-century since, U.C.L.A. has won one championship — in 1995, when Bob Myers, now the general manager of the Warriors, was a reserve forward.
Kerr made sure to note that coincidence. But his larger point was about how sports are unpredictable, which is one of the reasons they are so appealing. Just as no one knew, for example, that the Warriors would make the wrong kind of history by blowing a 31-point lead on Monday, no one knew that they would bounce back on Thursday by obliterating the Clippers, 132-105, in Game 3 of their first-round series.
At the same time, no one knows whether the Warriors will go on to win a third straight championship — or how long this team will remain intact. Nothing is inevitable. Everything is uncertain. All dynasties end.
“So you don’t worry about expectations,” Kerr said. “Just go out there and play and do your best and see if you can sustain it for a long time. But everything comes to an end, and we’re just trying to keep this going for as long as we can.”
The central (if unmentioned) figure in all of this, of course, is Kevin Durant, who has taken on all comers this season in the form of a 7-foot, long-limbed question mark. Bound for free agency this summer, Durant could stay with the Warriors, with whom he has already won two championships — but most expect him to go. Who knows? The agita has sometimes clouded his team’s season.
The only sure thing is his basketball genius, which still belongs to the Warriors — for now if not forever — and was on display Thursday night against the Clippers, as he helped lift Golden State to a two-games-to-one lead in the series. Game 4 is Sunday at Staples Center.
“Honestly,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said, “they dissected us.”
It was a resounding statement made by the Warriors in the wake of Monday’s fiasco, and no player was more electric or dynamic than Durant, who made all five of his shots in the first quarter — and somehow seemed to improve as the night went on. He finished with 38 points and 7 assists, shooting 14 of 23 from the field.
“He came out super aggressive, in kill mode,” the Warriors’ Draymond Green said. “That was all the difference for us.”
Durant’s explosion in Game 3 followed a couple of muted efforts for him early in the series. Defended by the Clippers’ Patrick Beverley, a 6-foot-1 guard whom Durant has described in recent days as both a “pit ball” and a “pest,” Durant managed 23 points before he was ejected in Game 1, then struggled even more in Game 2: 21 points and 9 turnovers while shooting just 5 of 8 from the field.
At practice this week, Durant had a scrum with the news media that felt more like a doctoral defense. He explained his approach on offense. He talked about strategy and chemistry and shot selection and rhythm. He may have mentioned the officiating once or twice. He also offered a reminder in case anyone had forgotten.
“I’m Kevin Durant,” he said. “You know who I am.”
After Thursday’s game, Durant said the only difference was that the team had run more plays for him while putting him in better positions to score, often on the low block. Consider: He scored 27 points in the first half, but did not make a single 3-pointer. His mentality, he said, never changes. He was not going to force bad shots. He was not going to turn his matchup with Beverley into some sort of me-first duel.
“I don’t do that type of stuff,” Durant said. “I just play.”
The Warriors have had one bad stretch against the Clippers in this series, and it cost them. But they clearly seem more together and more resilient than they were back in November, when they visited Staples Center and lost to the Clippers in overtime after Green and Durant barked at each other on the bench, then feuded in the locker room. The team wound up suspending Green for a game. Durant, annoyed at questions about free agency, later boycotted the news media for about two weeks. The cracks were showing. Was the dynasty crumbling?
The last few days, then, were in some ways a microcosm of their season: The Warriors reassembled the pieces. They recognize how fragile this all is, how rare their opportunity. And if they needed a reminder, they got one in Game 2 when DeMarcus Cousins, their starting center, tore a quadriceps muscle. He will likely miss the rest of the postseason. In his absence, the rest of them will go on — with an understanding that this run will not last forever.
“We realize how lucky we are to do this,” said Klay Thompson, their All-Star shooting guard. “Leave it out there. Nothing’s ever guaranteed in the future, so play to win now and do it collectively.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/sports/golden-state-warriors-kevin-durant.html
2019-04-19 11:55:01Z
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