Analysis: With Kevin Durant injured, fate of Warriors’ dynasty depends on core four
Golden State Warriors stars Draymond Green and Stephen Curry celebrate a dramatic Game 5 win over the Houston Rockets. By Ben Golliver Ben Golliver NBA reporter Email Bio Follow May 9 at 5:13 AM OAKLAND, Calif. — Kevin Durant, the man whose 2016 arrival transformed the Golden State Warriors from incredible to unstoppable, limped to the locker room, and suddenly a dynasty’s fate was back in the hands of its founding members.
“When Kevin went out, Steph just went into a different mindset,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. “It kind of reminded me of four or five years ago before we had Kevin. We were heavily dependent on Steph generating a lot of our offense back then.” In the time of need, Kerr also received important contributions from Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, two other members of the original 2015 title team. Green, who has been struggling with his outside shot all year, buried a three-pointer with less than four minutes to play. Iguodala, in addition to hawking Harden for much of the night, set up a late Thompson three, made a layup and hit a free throw down the stretch.
“Any time you see something like that, it’s scary,” Curry said. “You could see the look on his face. He didn’t really understand what was happening in that moment. During the timeout, we all looked at each other. There were a couple smiles in terms of what that meant for us as a team, the guys that were going to need to step up in those moments.”
The glee will be temporary, as the Warriors must regroup to do it again with precious little time to make strategic adjustments in the wake of Durant’s injury. While Golden State now holds a 3-2 series lead, it heads back to Houston for Friday’s Game 6. If the Rockets hold serve, as they did in Games 3 and 4, Oracle Arena will host Game 7 on Sunday.
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