Benefield: ‘Real’ Warriors keep historic season alive

OAKLAND - Was the past week just a nightmare?

Did that shocking loss in Game 1 and those horrible outings in Game 3 and Game 4 ever even happen?

Those seeming imposters who were wearing Golden State Warriors garb and professing to be the team that ran off the greatest regular season record in NBA history, they were nowhere to be seen Monday night. In their place were the Warriors we know - the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the aggressive Draymond Green, a team that banded together to vanquish the Oklahoma City Thunder and make NBA history - again.

In the history of the NBA, 232 teams have fallen behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. Nine of them came back to win the series.

Make it 10.

This series against the Thunder took the Warriors to the brink of elimination - three times. The team that fell behind to Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Co., was a shadow of the team we know. The team that roared back and reeled off three consecutive wins is the team we know well.

“We were a mature basketball team that tried our best not to listen to the noise outside when six, seven days ago we're down 3-1, everybody thought the wheels were falling off and it was kind of the end of our run,” Curry said. “But in that locker room, the talk was positive. It was, ‘Let's figure this out. Let's go out and take it one game at a time and claw our way back into the series and see what happens.'?”

The Warriors trailed for much of Game 7 but they never gave in, never let the odds of what they were about to do derail them.

Before the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he wasn't giving his players a pregame talk about their historic run, or about how they will be remembered.

He talked to them about one game. Winning one game against a very talented Thunder team.

“No, we're talking about one game within this series,” he said. “Our keys have pretty much stayed the same through seven games … So today was about this game and what we need to do to win this game and put ourselves in position to do so.”

What the Warriors needed to do was play with grit. That they did.

Curry called the series “a rollercoaster.”

We know, Steph, we were all along for the ride.

And to be honest, the twists and turns made our collective stomachs a little woozy at times.

When Klay Thompson, the hero of Game 6 started out ice cold on Monday, scoring just one point in the first quarter, it was like the rollercoaster was still working its ugliness on our bellies.

But Thompson, ever the grinder, rallied for 12 points in the second. He finished the night with 21, just shy of his season average of 22 points.

“These guys showed a lot of toughness, a lot of heart,” forward Andre Iguodala said. “We could have easily just started making some vacation plans but we've got some competitors, guys who like competing, and we've done a lot this year.”

Want a competitor? How about Curry's performance. He scored 36 points - 15 in the fourth quarter to seal the fate of the Thunder.

In the waning minutes, Curry sank a 3 that brought the crowd to their feet and the noise in Oracle Arena to a deafening din, he pulled his jersey into his mouth and chest bumped Draymond Green.

Just like in Game 6 he screamed, “We're not going home.” It might have been more appropriate for him to scream “We're home. We're back. This weird team of lackluster imposters who wore our uniforms and sleepwalked through Games 3 and 4? We got rid of them.”

“We were not just down 3-1, we had gotten blown out two straight games,” Kerr said. “So obviously everything started with Game 5, kind of rediscovering ourselves and our style. Then Game 6 was kind of magical. What Klay did that night, basically putting us on his shoulders and allowing us to have this opportunity tonight at home. It's a pretty remarkable comeback and it shows, I think, a lot about our guys and their will and their grit.”

And that fight, that back-against-the-wall grit, will serve them well when they face a healthy Cleveland Cavaliers squad in the Finals.

“I think everybody will look at 73 wins and say, ‘Wow, this team never hit any adversity,' but there is adversity in every season,” Draymond Green said. “When you're down 3-1 and everything's on the line, that makes it 10 times worse. So it's definitely the biggest thing that this team has had to overcome, and it took a great, tremendous effort and fight to overcome it.”

Wake up, Warriors fans, the nightmare is over. A return trip to the NBA Finals awaits.