OAKLAND -- Faced with the prospect of taking a 3-1 series deficit back to San Antonio, with their only All-Star playing limited minutes and their acknowledged best player a game-time decision because of a bum ankle, you could say the Warriors faced a desperate situation Sunday at Oracle Arena.
So what else is new?
"Playing an experienced team like San Antonio, a very good veteran team, I feel like one of our best weapons is we've been playing sort of desperate since the start of the series," said David Lee, Golden State's All-Star forward, who is slowly working his way back from a hip injury. "And I think that our intensity -- we didn't have the best Game 3, but we came back tonight. Going down 3-1 against a team that's as steady as the Spurs would make for a very difficult comeback."
Relying on pluck and determination more than the sweet shooting that has made America take notice this postseason, the Warriors erased an eight-point deficit with 4:49 left in regulation to defeat the second-seeded Spurs 97-87 in overtime in Game 4 of this Western Conference semifinal series.
"One thing I know, this team will not lay down. This team will not quit," Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. "It looked dark. It looked awfully dark. But we found a way to get stops and make plays."
It was just the second overtime playoff victory in Warriors franchise history. The other came against the Detroit Pistons on Apr. 30, 1976 -- five days after San Antonio star Tim Duncan was born.
This one seemed like a long shot at several points of the game. The Spurs led by as many as 11 points, and went up by eight on Kawhi Leonard's layup with 4:49 remaining. But San Antonio was 2 of 9 through the rest of the fourth quarter, including a 3-point miss by Manu Ginobili on a solid look with 20 seconds left.
The Warriors made up the gap on shooting from a couple of secondary sources, guards Jarrett Jack and Klay Thompson.
Jack had earned the ire of Warriors fans with some late-game failures in these playoffs, but scored eight points down the stretch in regulation -- including three consecutive buckets in a little over a minute, on a couple of pull-up jumpers bracketed around an 11-foot turnaround fade.
Thompson was the hero of Golden State's Game 2 win, but he had just six points on 3-of-9 shooting in the first three quarters Sunday before hitting two big shots in the final 2:40 of regulation. Jack then made a key non-scoring play, diving to secure a loose ball under the Spurs basket and managing to call timeout while on the floor with 16 seconds left. Jack's 18-footer tied the game 82-82 with 58 seconds on the clock.
And after Spurs point guard Tony Parker put his team ahead 84-82 with a floating 15-footer at the 39-second mark, Thompson banked in a runner with 30 seconds left to set up overtime.
The extra period was a runaway. The Spurs didn't score until 3:23 had elapsed, by which time the Warriors had built a nine-point lead.
In all, San Antonio shot just 35.5 percent (33 of 93) from the field, 25.9 percent from 3-point range (7 of 27) and, perhaps most damaging, 56 percent from the free-throw line (14 of 25).
"We knew that it was gonna take great defense to win the game," forward Carl Landry said. "Tim Duncan can hit shots. Tony Parker can hit tough shots. So can Ginobili and the rest of the guys. So we knew in order to have a chance to win this game, we were gonna have to play defense. And we locked in and got it done."
Even after watching it unfold, a lot of people were at pains to explain exactly how the Warriors had pulled this one out. Lee played less than eight minutes and didn't score a point. Stephen Curry, the star of the NBA postseason until he twisted his problematic ankle late in Game 3, clearly was hindered in Game 4.
He sat for 14:24 of the game, including 6:04 of the second quarter, though he finished with 22 points. And to add insult to injuries, center Andrew Bogut, a powerful inside force on defense, picked up his third foul less than six minutes into the game and didn't see the court again until after halftime.
With Bogut grounded, Curry limping and Thompson struggling to find his shot, the Warriors got vital contributions from role players.
Jack wound up with 24 points. Rookie forward Harrison Barnes led all scorers with 26, and though it came on 9-of-26 shooting, his aggressiveness from the wing helped keep the Spurs off-balance.
Now it's back to San Antonio with a much brighter prospect. The series is tied 2-2, and Curry has two full days to rest his ankle.
You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
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