Warriors thrill fans with Game 7 win

OAKLAND - For the past two years, the Golden State Warriors have captured the hearts of the Bay Area and beyond, turning regular people into basketball fans, or bringing back fans who'd given up on their local team for other pursuits - easy to do when that other team across the bay is winning the World Series every other year.

Monday night, those hearts overflowed with pride, relief and elation as the Warriors finally quieted the Oklahoma City Thunder after a grueling seven-game tug-of-war that pushed the team and its fans to the edge.

When the final buzzer sounded at the end of another roller-coaster game at Oracle Arena, the Warriors had extended their record-breaking season with a reservation for their second consecutive NBA Finals.

Yellow confetti rained down on the 19,596 fans cheering Golden State's 96-88 victory Western Conference final victory against Oklahoma City, and brought with it the potential for back-to-back NBA championships.

“Total insanity, unbelievable,” said Santa Rosa resident Dan Christensen, celebrating the Warriors' historic comeback from being down three games to one to win the series.

Now, with two-time league Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, Coach of the Year Steve Kerr, Splash Brother Klay Thompson and “Chief Inspirational Officer” Draymond Green, the Warriors will again meet their 2015 adversaries, the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers, in the finals.

Game 1 begins at 6 p.m. Thursday in Oakland.

The odds of the Warriors coming back from the edge of elimination after Game 4 were slim - 3.9 percent, to be exact. Golden State became only the 10th team in NBA history to accomplish that feat. But another bit of NBA history was in Golden State's favor: Home teams were 100-24 in Game 7s.

“We survived by the skin of our teeth,” Kerr said afterward, crediting the Thunder's players and coaching staff. “They had us on our heels constantly in this series.”

Monday's win - in which both teams held leads of 13 points during the game - completes another chapter in the Warriors' emotional journey this year that Bay Area fans are happy to join.

The success of the past two years has been a healing balm for fans after years of uninspired performances.

The Warriors made the playoffs all but one year from 1971 to 1977 and won their first West Coast championship in 1975 with stars Rick Barry and Jamaal Wilkes.

They had the league's best record the following season, at 59-23, but were upset by the Phoenix Suns in seven games in the Western Conference final - the last time the Warriors played a home Game 7 until Monday night.

But they struggled through most of the next three decades.

Christensen is one of those fans from way back. He first had season tickets in 1974, then again in the 1990s. He and his wife, Grace, got back in the game in 2005.

“There were times we couldn't give the tickets away,” he said. “Now, everybody and their brother is asking for tickets.”

Grace said they are “true fans,” as Dan lifted his jacket to show a yellow We Believe shirt from the 2007 playoff run.

Coming into 2006-07, the Warriors had the unenviable record for the most consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance, 12.

But that season gave birth to the “We Believe” movement and a resurgence in the Bay Area love for the Warriors.

Not since that time has the Bay Area been so unified by the Warriors' success.

With the newfound Warriors success these past two years, some fans admit to jumping on the bandwagon, but that's OK, the Warriors will take them. Games at Oakland's Oracle Arena are sellouts – 185 consecutive and counting – and the season-ticket waiting list stretches around the block. Having a million people come out to your championship victory parade is pretty impressive.

And it's not just the Bay Area that has fallen in love with the Warriors. TV ratings nationwide are breaking records.

Saturday's 108-101 comeback win against the Thunder averaged 10.8 million total viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, making it the most-viewed and highest-rated Game 6 of a conference final in NBA history.

Demand to see Golden State in person is just as big: hours before Monday's game, the average list price for a ticket was $960, a record for any conference final game. Only one NBA Finals game, the Miami Heat vs. San Antonio Spurs Game 7 three years ago, had a higher average cost at $1,346, according to ESPN.

That dollar amount priced out Laura Morales and her Healdsburg family for Monday's game.

But she and her husband Tomas did put together a surprise road trip on May 9 to Portland so they and the kids, Anamaria, 18, and Gabriel, 13, could see Curry play in the first game back from his knee injury.

“We really enjoying giving our kids these awesome experiences,” Morales said. “We can't afford to take our kids to Hawaii for a week, but we can do fun things like these that are unforgettable. We both grew up not having much. We just want to be able to give our kids a little more. We will never forget this amazing experience.”

The Christensens knew they were coming to Monday's game. You see, Dan is a bit of a good luck charm for the team.

“If I'm not here, they're not going to win,” he said before the game. “The only game I've been to this year that they lost is one I brought my dad too, and it was his first game.”

Dad was not on the invite list for Monday's game, of course. Sorry, Pops, this game was bigger than that.

Kerr may have been the best leader to have at this most critical time. He participated in three Game 7s as a player. He knows the pressure, the anticipation, the season-long goal to win this decisive game.

Before tipoff on Monday, Kerr said his team was excited to be home for the crucial game and hoped the volume at “Roracle Arena” would add the extra boost it had all year during the regular season, which saw the Warriors go 39-2 at home.

“Game 7s are special,” Kerr said, “but they're still the same game. You've got to just play and you've got to execute and let it fly and see what happens.”

The energy - the noise, the support, the feeling of camaraderie with almost 20,000 other blue-and-yellow-clad fans - is visceral.

“You can hear the crowd going crazy like that,” Kerr said. “It helps fuel you and helps fuel momentum. If you can play well and put it together with that crowd ... there's no scientific explanation, it's just how it works.”

After the game, he again credited the crowd for helping the Warriors get back in the game in the third quarter.

The Warriors trailed virtually the entire game until Curry bagged a 26-foot jumper to tie it at 54 with 7:21 left in the third quarter. The sound inside Oracle was deafening.

The Warriors then went on a 17-4 run, including a 12-0 spurt, en route to their biggest lead of the game, 71-58 with 58 seconds left in the quarter.

“That's where our crowd really came into play,” Kerr said. “The first half you could just hear the groans, you could hear the disappointment with the fans and we weren't giving them anything to cheer for.”

When Shaun Livingston hit a 10-foot pull-up jumper and then slammed home a dunk, the crowd erupted, with Curry egging them on.

“I thought Shaun Livingston's dunk in transition kind of changed the tune,” Kerr said. “Our fans got into it. It was an emotional play. Our bench was into it and it just seemed to pick up our intensity that much more.”

The win evened Golden State's all-time record in Game 7s to 4-4, its first since losing in the opening round of the 2014 playoffs to the Los Angeles Clippers. It was also the team's first home Game 7 since the 1976 Western Conference final, a loss that ended the Warriors' hopes for a repeat championship.

Not this year. That pursuit picks up again Thursday.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.